American Bred Episode 10: Coup at the Institute
by American Companion
Summary: Kurunathan, a completly safe planet. With a mental institute that has a habit of dissapearing people. That the Doctor has just been admitted to. Run by a man who knows exactly who the Doctor is. Don't worry though; Kurunathan is perfectly safe.
1. Chapter 1

The Doctor stepped into the console room and paused. He wrinkled his nose and inhaled deeply. He turned towards the kitchen door, feeling pulled. He had been in the back for maybe fifteen minutes to shower and change his suit, and he thought Katie had gone on to bed as he had ordered. After the troubling discussion with the Jahra and Krize they had met on Beriin, she needed rest. So why did he smell cooking oil?

He stepped into the kitchen. Katie was moving about the kitchen in a nervous manner, looking like she was bothered about something. She was wearing the same clothes, but had put a clean white apron on over them. A deep pan full of oil was heating on the stove and she had pulled out an odd assortment of ingredients mostly consisting of flour, sugar, and sweeter spices.

"Kathryn, what are you doing?"

"Cooking. It helps me think."

"Kathryn, you need to bathe and sleep."

"No I don't Doctor."

"Yes you do. You're—"

Katie whirled around, a wooden spoon held threateningly in her hand. Her face was pale and strained. "Don't you dare say it, Time Lord. Don't you dare."

"Kathryn, what's wrong with—"

"Don't say it Doctor. If I hear you say it one more time I swear I will scream. I shouldn't have to be repeating this every other day, but I will say it one time more and it had better make it through that old, thick skull of yours because I do not want to hear it again: I—am—not—human."

The Doctor shifted his weight backwards, slipping his hands into his trouser pockets. "Then what are you?" he asked quietly. Katie lowered the spoon and turned back to her mixing.

"I'm not human; I lost that nearly a year ago. I'm not Jahra, that's for certain." Her movements grew more furious and determined as she continued into a near rant. "Maybe I'm nothing. Maybe I don't have an identity. The things that made me didn't make me the right way so now I get stuck like this, and they don't even have the decency to leave me with a reason!"

"Stuck like what?"

Katie turned around, the bowl tucked in her arm. "I'm a child running around with enough power to potentially destroy a planet, and my only chaperone is the universe's most dangerous man." Katie kept pouring out frustrations as she plunked the dough she had made onto a sheet and started rolling it out, not seeming to notice the flicker of emotion on the Doctor's face.

"There's a set template for the other Jahra the Rahki create: grow a blank person, change the genetic makeup and DNA, give it a character, perform a body swap, let it soak up the culture, bring it back and start over. But those Jahra know what they're doing. Those Jahra know all about the universe while they're playing historical figure. Those Jahra have a recall switch. Those Jahra know exactly what they were built for!"

Katie glared at the oil pan as she tested the temperature with a thermometer. "What do I get? A free mind but no home, a self-chosen name but no family, a bunch of facts but no way to remember them, and then as an added bonus I received the uncontrollable ability to kill anyone I so much as high five!" She looked at the thermometer before pointing it at the Doctor, a hand on her hip.

"And frankly you're no help either. I figured out why I learn so fast. I'm not learning at all! I'm just remembering the junk the Rahki shoved into the back of my mind! Fine and dandy but the second I come to you or Gallifrey or anything to do with TARDISes or applied temporal physics I get squat. You think the Rahki would leave a little something about a person like you, particularly when it seems that every other Jahra knows about it, but no I have to sit and wonder."

Katie turned back to her well-rolled dough, whipped a knife from a nearby drawer, and started cutting the dough into small rectangles. "And then there's that crazy protective drive I've got. I'd throw myself in front of any bullet someone tried to write your name on, but I physically can't watch you get hurt. Someone threatens you, and I growl. They hit you and I bleeding well flip, and I can't stop myself. I've tried." Katie started dropping the dough squares into the oil. She took a deep breath to make herself relax.

"I don't know what I am Doctor, but I know it isn't human. I don't know what the 'Scorch Project' is, but I know it has something to do with me and it's big enough to kill over. I don't know what the Rahki had in mind giving me the energy absorption, but I know it's not good. I don't know why I need so badly to keep you safe, but I know that in the end it will have some horrid purpose as well. I don't know what made Gina Alexis O'Conner so special that they chose her life for me to live, but I know that I miss her life and I want it back. I don't know why I got to live on earth for fifteen years before being thrust into my current existence, but I know that at some point it's going to turn on me, and I don't know why I don't care."

Katie fished the squares out of the oil and set them on a paper towel before putting a few more raw squares in the oil. The Doctor walked over and leaned backwards on the counter. Katie kept watching the squares as they inflated. The Doctor knew perfectly well what they were but still asked.

"What are you making?"

"Cinnamon Beignets."

"What's the occasion?"

Katie's smile was bitter sweet, and a little self-depreciating. "My—Gina's dad's birthday." She looked up at the Doctor for a moment. "You know how something can become so much of a habit that you can't do anything else? Like when you have to get up at five every morning for a year, and then the next year you try to sleep until six you can't because your body is so used to getting up at five? It's like that. Ever since I was six, I got up early on his birthday to fix him breakfast before he went to work."

"Beignets at six?"

Katie gave him a nudge of friendly reproof. "No. It was pancakes that year. The kitchen was a mess, but the pancakes were perfect. I'm not just repeating what my—her dad said either, those were the _perfect_ pancakes." She fished out the beignets and put some more in the oil. She blinked a few times and swallowed, staring into the oil like it was a magic mirror. "He insisted that there was too much for him to eat by himself, so I sat with him. Every year after that I would get up and make enough for both of us and we'd just sit and eat breakfast together. Beignets didn't become part of the menu until I turned ten, but after I found out just how much he liked them, I was sure to make them every year."

Katie fell silent again, pulling out the current batch and putting in the last few squares of raw dough. The Doctor looked away from her, thinking. He didn't really know much about Katie's life before TARDIS. He hardly ever asked people about what their home life had been. It was too normal, too boring to bother with. Besides, he knew that his friends were running with him to get a break from the mundane routine of Earth, or a parallel universe, or whatever other place they had come from. Then again, they had always come by choice. They had been early twenties, late teens at least, ages where running away from home was standard and seeking out their own life was expected. Though he had technically invited Katie, it wasn't as though she really had a choice in the matter. A fifteen year old forcefully removed—no, not removed, _ripped_ from all she had known into a new time, place, and body? Of course she had said yes. It wasn't as though she had any other place to go. Consensual kidnapping is still kidnapping.

The Doctor wondered what would have happened if she'd had the choice to return home. Would she have refused to travel? Asked for a five year rain check to grow up? Said goodbye to her family and left them with a phone number before taking off, promising to come back for holidays?

Maybe he was just as bad as the Rahki, forcing a life on Katie that she had never asked for, then expecting her to just get used to it without so much as a 'how are you taking it?' or 'are you really okay?'

"Here," Katie said, breaking the silence. He turned to see her holding up the plate with the beignets, lightly dusted with powdered sugar. "Tell me how they turned out."

The Doctor started to protest but Katie just rolled her eyes. "I know you don't eat breakfast fly-boy, but what else am I supposed to do with them? Besides, you can just think of it as a midnight snack or something."

The Doctor hesitated another moment before taking one. It was still warm to the touch as he bit into it. For a moment he couldn't speak as he slowly chewed. "Wow. Where did you learn to cook like this?" he said as he took another bite. "Are you sure you lived in America?"

Katie smiled. "Very," she said, purposefully thickening her Texan accent. She set the plate back down on the counter and took one for herself. The Doctor expected her to be wearing a smug smile or perhaps crying, but she had a set face, obviously not really tasting the French doughnut.

"What was he like? Your dad?"

Katie shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. He was a dad. Um, he was kind of on the short side, only a couple inches over me, so maybe… 5' 7"? 5' 8"? A little on the round side I guess. Black hair turning salt-pepper, blue eyes, glasses. Square shoulders, hairy arms, beard."

"Alright," the Doctor said, nodding. "That's fine if I want to pick him up from the airport, but what was he like?"

Katie's stare and voice turned distant as she remembered. "You know that saying, 'Anyone can be a father but it takes someone special to be a Dad?' He was like that. He was smart, oh was he smart. He was a Laboratory Technician at the local hospital, and he should have been in charge of it. He practically was anyway. He was very good at math and science and such. Sometimes, when I would be working on math homework he'd come over and look at the problem, and we'd get into a race to see who would finish first. Didn't count if you were wrong though. He was funny and a good cook. He had a bit of a temper. He never laid a hand on me, but if he got angry at me for something it was like the sky fell in. But when he was pleased—which was most of the time—the whole world was right. He never really said it, but I could tell that he was very proud of me." Katie blinked and smiled shakily, glancing up at the Doctor. "He was my dad."

"It sounds as though you were very close."

"They are."

"Kathryn—"

"Don't say it."

"Even if you aren't human, the memories are still yours. You were the one who made them after all."

"While I was living another person's life." Katie unconsciously flattened the beignet in between her fingers. "I'm not a human. I never was. I don't have a species, and the races that know about me either want me dead or they want me back, neither of which is comforting. I have no family. I have to remember that, otherwise I'll raise hell trying to find a way back to the one I thought was mine." She took a deep breath, and her next words were so quiet the Doctor wondered if he was supposed to hear them, or even if she knew she had said them out loud.

"I just want my life back."

Katie popped the last part of the squished beignet into her mouth and dusted her hands off, her whole demeanor forcefully changing. "Now, I need a shower and a change of clothes. Your job is to pick another planet for today."

"Not until you've slept," the Doctor said, picking up another beignet. "You're only fifteen, you need sleep."

Katie turned, walking backwards from the kitchen. "I suck energy right out of the air Doctor. Who needs sleep?"

_You do, if only to give the memories a chance to live again in your dreams,_ the Doctor thought as he watched her leave. _That's the only place you can see them anymore. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry._

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

After yet another rough training flight by Katie, she and the Doctor stepped from TARDIS. The Doctor's hands were in his pockets, but his voice gestured grandly. "Welcome to Kurunathan, a planet known for good schools, safe streets, marvelous health care, and general peace all round."

"So basically it's the suburbs of the universe."

"Well, more like the countryside of the Middle Ages on Earth combined with modern convenience."

"Suburbs of the universe."

"Yeah."

Katie smiled. "There's got to be a catch somewhere."

"No, not this time," the Doctor said. "All perfectly legitimate. Trust me, I've been here before."

"Does this mean we don't have to run?"

He gave her a look. "What's wrong with the running? I thought you liked the running."

"I do, but sometimes it's nice to walk." Katie stepped forward down the brick street. "Come on! I bet they've got some marvelous stores."

Katie was, as usual, correct. They hadn't gone far before they came across a street bazaar. They wandered through, trying the odd vegetables (one of which was ice cold but smoking), finding the best version of a local drink that reminded Katie vaguely of sunshine, and swapping recipes with a food stall owner. The things being sold seemed to be arranged into sections, and as the foods petered out they came across the first signs of garments and accessories.

"I'm not sure where to look first," Katie said, blinking, though her voice held awe rather than scorn.

"Something for everyone here," the Doctor agreed.

"I wonder—" Katie broke off her sentence suddenly by reaching out with a gloved hand and catching the backpack of the child in front of her. He immediately started struggling, but Katie just pulled him back so that he was alongside her.

"Lemme go!"

Katie held out her hand. "Give it back first."

"I don't have anything that isn't mine."

Katie got down on one knee, still not letting go of the boy's pack. He stared defiantly back at her with hazel eyes, his arms crossed. In one hand he held a small green pouch. "I'll make you a deal," Katie said, "and my friend here can judge whether or not it's fair."

The boy gave her a suspicious look. "What's the deal?"

"I'll wager that I can say what's in that pouch you've got and that you can't."

"What's on the line?"

"The contents of the pouch."

"What if I don't want to make a deal with you?"

Katie smiled. "Then the two of us can wait right here while my friend finds a police officer to judge if the bet is fair."

The boy didn't even hesitate. "Alright then. Guess."

Katie shrugged. "If you say it's your pouch, I think you should guess first."

"An oval shaped rock," the boy said. Katie nodded.

"Good guess. I'll go further. It's black, completely smooth, and it's not a perfect oval. Open the bag so we can see."

The boy smiled in a cheeky grin. "No, I believe you." He held out the pouch and Katie took it, tucking it into her messenger bag. When she withdrew her hand, it was still clenched. She held it out towards the boy and opened it at the same time she let him go. In her open palm was a small copper figurine, no more than an inch in length. The detail was marvelous, the shape obviously a young woman in a fleecy dress.

"Take it. Payment for the pouch."

The boy grinned, picked up the figurine, and was gone in an instant. Katie stood again. "General peace all round, huh?"

"Everybody has a few scruples. Why aren't you wearing that around your neck like you usually do?"

Katie looked openly at him. "The Rahki have already marked me for something. I don't need evidence of their tampering hanging around my neck." She looked back to the stalls. "Come on. Let's see if we can't find you a different outfit."

"What's wrong with my suit?" the Doctor said, falling into step with her again.

"Nothing, but I see it all the time. You need variety."

"I have a brown one too."

"Not what I meant. The least we can do is get you a new tie." She stopped by a stall with several swaths of cloth, just the right size to be cut into a tie. She pulled one off a rack and held it up against him. "Maybe orange."

"No. No orange."

"Yellow?"

"No."

"Bright purple then."

"No."

"If you keep saying no I'm going to get you all three."

The stall owner drifted over to them, a pretty woman wearing a scarf. "Looking for something?"

"Yes."

"No."

Katie gave the Doctor a look which he ignored, directing his words to the woman. "Thank you, but we were just browsing." He took Katie arm and started pulling her away. She set the scarf down again.

"We'll be back." The stall owner nodded at Katie, giving a small smile.

Katie and the Doctor continued on, not really stopping. The Doctor became momentarily distracted by the wind chimes a booth selling jewelry had when he looked up and noticed Katie over at a dress stall. She was standing in front of a mirror, holding one of the dresses up to herself. The skirt was almost to the ground and the dress had only one sleeve, which was long. It was a deep red almost to the point of being purple, with no sequins or embroidery, and seemed to be made of something similar to very fine linen. He walked up behind her.

"You should get it."

"Right, like skirts mixing with me is a good idea," Katie said, still examining herself in the mirror. "Not even sure why I picked it up. Just being in any kind of dress shop is probably tempting fate."

"The planet's safe."

She locked eyes with him in the mirror. "You sure?"

"Very."

Katie folded the dress over her arm and walked over to the stall owner, reaching into her bag to find something to bargain with.

A few minutes later, Katie appeared from a curtained changing room, wearing the dress. The Doctor nodded approvingly as she twirled about, ending in an overly dramatic pose. He raised an eyebrow as he noticed her feet.

"You're wearing open toed shoes."

"Another bad luck thing," she said as she lifted her skirt to reveal the light brown sandals. "I figured two negatives made a positive." She peered at the box in his hand. "What'd you get?"

He handed her the box. "Another negative."

Giving him a suspicious glance, Katie carefully opened the box. Her eyes widened for a moment before she caught herself and gave the Doctor a look. "A necklace?"

He shrugged, a light smile on his face. "I thought it would go with the dress."

Katie smiled and nodded. "You're right on that account." She pulled it out of the box. The chain was made of intertwining silver links, giving the impression of being delicate while guaranteeing to hold. The pendant on it was a small purple crystal. She handed the box back to him and put the necklace on, centering the pendant. "Now, the only question is how to counter the extra negative." Katie snapped her fingers. "I know."

Reaching behind her head, she pulled out the several pins and hair ties holding her cedar hair up in a bun. Katie shook her head and her long hair fell loosely down her back. She gave a self-satisfied smile. "There. Four negatives still come up to a positive. Do I look sufficiently feminine for now?"

The Doctor nodded and Katie flashed him a wicked smile. "Now that I've had to get all decked out, I'm going to go back and buy those three scarves, and as soon as I've made them into ties I expect you to wear them."

Before the Doctor could protest, Katie was already heading back towards the booth. He shook his head as he watched her go before starting to continue on down the rows. Katie would catch up on her own time.

As he walked, he looked out towards the surrounding landscape. Mostly it was grassy hills, but on top of a hill a little ways out he caught sight of a large very modern building. Catching the eye of a nearby stall owner, he pointed to it.

"What's that for."

"It's the Institute sir," the man stated in a large voice. "For the nutters." The Doctor looked puzzled.

"So close?" he asked. The man shrugged.

"The people who built it built it strong. No one can get out without someone noticing, and they have to be nearby in case someone goes into fits."

"Fits?"

"Just so sir. See that man there?" the stall owner said, pointing a rather large finger at a nearby couple. The man had a thick white band around his upper right arm. "That's one of the recoveries, another out of dozens. If he's down here getting used to people again it means he's on the mend, but there's always the risk something might happen and you'll get a violet relapse. Besides, there are always the new ones to consider."

"Do people go mad on a regular basis?" the Doctor asked. The man nodded.

"Sure do. People take in relatives or friends, and then they of course go visiting them! But it's like there's something in the air inside that place, and likely as not the visitors also drop a few marbles, if you know what I mean. I reckon it comes from seeing their loved ones cooped up like."

"Is that why it's so big?" The man shook his head vigorously.

"No, naught like that. That place is the best of its kind, and people from all over the county get sent there. Always someone being released or being committed."

The Doctor stared at the building for a few more moments before turning back to the man, smiling.

"Thank you for the information." The man smiled back at him.

"Always happy to help."

The Doctor continued on, this time in the direction of the building. Katie caught up with him a moment later, a box tucked under her arm. She slipped her other arm through his like a curious child. "So, what do we get to see next?" The Doctor nodded at the large building.

"I'm taking you to the local loony bin."

Katie smiled up at him sweetly. "Feeling lonely?" she asked. He shrugged.

"I thought you might want a taste of home." Katie stuck her tongue out at him impudently before they picked up their pace.

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

Katie and the Doctor subconsciously agreed to not walk directly towards the front of the institute. Rather, they took the much longer route of looping around the building to see if there was a back door. The walk was long, but not unpleasant. It was a warm day with a bit of a breeze, the air was fresh and the grass was soft. Being used to wearing jeans Katie tripped a few times on her skirt, but otherwise there was no mishap. About halfway to the institute they paused momentarily to look at it.

"Looks kind of out of place," Katie commented. "And a bit…not hospital-like. Of course, I've never been to an institute, so I wouldn't really know."

"They aren't very pleasant," the Doctor said. "Particularly for the patients. I don't like hospitals but if I had a choice I'd rather be in the ICU than the psych ward."

"I dunno, Intensive Care Unit usually means you're near death. I sort of like the thought of it being expected for you to go do a few excessively odd things. I might get less funny looks that way." She looked at the Doctor. "Why are we going there anyway?"

"According to the man I spoke with people start losing their minds at a regular rate around here. Usually it's the visitors, the people who have gone inside. Makes me wonder why."

"Sounds reasonable. That's usually how these things start."

The Doctor gave Katie a look. "Are you insinuating that I go looking for trouble?"

"No. I'm stating a fact: you go looking for trouble."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because it's fun and trouble usually involves a mystery that you can solve and thus prove to yourself and others how smart you are. Makes things more exciting that way."

"If you're looking for a mystery, you've certainly found the right place."

Katie and the Doctor turned around to see the young boy that had tried to rob Katie earlier. He was watching them with a very open stare, obviously unafraid and not at all bothered that he had been listening in on their conversation.

"I'd say it's impolite to eavesdrop, except you aren't dropping from the eaves and I've done the same thing myself," Katie said, looking back at him with the same stare. "What makes the place so mysterious?"

"What'll you give me if I tell you?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Nothing. We'll just ask someone else."

"What if I said that no one else knows?"

"Then we'll go find out for ourselves," Katie said. The boy's shoulders drooped.

"Drat. This isn't at all how it works in the holofilms."

Katie smiled. "Movies aren't really the best way to find out how life works."

"Isn't art supposed to imitate life?"

"If you can tell me who first said that I might actually give you something," the Doctor said.

"Oscar Wilde in his 1889 essay "The Decay of Lying," the boy promptly answered. The Doctor's eyebrows lifted in surprise. Katie grinned teasingly at him.

"You were the one who said education was top notch here."

"Are you a Texan?" the boy suddenly asked. Katie blinked in surprise before looking at the Doctor.

"I thought Southern accents stayed on earth with the rest of the sane people."

"They are, but I've seen all the flat movies from the pre-migration period," the boy said excitedly. "Do you have a six-shooter?"

"A friend of mine threw it into a pond," Katie said dryly. "Why are you following us anyway? And how old are you?"

"I'm eleven."

"Eleven. You're sure about that."

"We're you born with your accent or did you learn it?"

"Yeah, he's eleven," the Doctor said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Got enough cheek."

"As if you don't," Katie said teasingly. "You got a name kid?"

"Tedeschi."

"Is that a last name?" the Doctor asked, peering at Tedeschi. He seemed to almost welcome the look.

"Someday, when I get old enough to make it so. I'm still looking for a good first name. Right now I'm just Tedeschi."

"Bit of mouthful," Katie said. "I've just renamed you 'Teddy.' My name's Kathryn and this is the Doctor."

"Your name takes too long to say. I'm renaming you 'Kat.'"

The Doctor had to choke back a laugh as Katie raised an eyebrow at Tedeschi as though contemplating how best to tie him into a knot. "Fair's fair," the Doctor commented, expecting and ignoring the irritated glance she gave him. He jerked his head at the institute, directing his next question to Tedeschi again. "What's the big mystery? People go mad all the time, and somewhere has to be the best in a country."

"That's the thing though," Tedeschi said in a conspiratorial fashion. "People go mad all the time! The Institute was small when it was first built, but they had to start adding wings on almost immediately. It's only been here since I was eight, and already it's the best one around. But lots of people go in that don't make it back out."

"The shopkeeper said that there were dozens of recoveries," the Doctor said, raising an eyebrow. Tedeschi turned his open stare on him.

"The people who come out with the white band are ones that didn't go in as patients. Either they're staff or their people from out of town who weren't even crazy in the first place."

"How would you know?" Katie asked. "Aren't you in school most of the time?"

"Not really. I do all my schoolwork at night and send it in with one of my pals. Most of the time I'm out here."

"Are you playing hooky? Is it a school day?" Katie asked.

"Every day is a school day. If you haven't learned something by sunset, you've just wasted all the light."

Katie regarded Tedeschi for a moment, her head tilted to one side. "I'm not sure if I want to keep you or roll you down the hill."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually. But look." Tedeschi pulled off his backpack and pulled out a well-worn notebook. He held it out to the Doctor with an apologetic look. "It's only the past few months. I have to hide the rest of them, but I can bring them if you want. I drew pictures of the people too. That's the one for the nurses and doctors, but I have the one for the patients with me for the same amount of time."

The Doctor took it and started glancing through curiously. "What are you doing still using paper?" he asked. "I thought everyone went to computers centuries back."

"I like the smell. When the Institute went up, I kept the records just for fun, something to do, a game I could play. I would try to guess what was wrong with the patients. No way to find out if I was right, but I guessed anyway. Then after about six months I noticed that none of the patients had come back out. None of them. I thought it was odd that no one was getting any better after six months, but at first I just ignored it. Then a year went past and only two people that had gone in as patients got back out. Only two in a whole year."

"And the staff?"

"Most of them never leave, but a few of the people who live around here still come and go. Until they also go mad. It's just weird! Everybody who goes inside eventually starts telling stories of aliens invading us and taking over people's minds and draining their bodies of life and other crazy things. But they can't all be lying."

"Why hasn't anyone gone to the police or something?" Katie asked. Tedeschi looked at her with that open stare again.

"No one really pays any attention to it, because no one else has bothered to look closely. I tried once, but they told me to go play somewhere else and to stop coming up with stupid stories."

"What makes you think we won't say the same thing?" the Doctor asked. The boy grinned.

"If you had a real reason to visit the institute, you would have gone there before going to the bazaar, meaning you aren't planning to put someone in. Because of the questions you asked, you also didn't know anything about this place, meaning you think there is something wrong, and I've just given you proof."

Katie looked at the Doctor. "He's got a point. So then Tedeschi," Katie said as she looked back at him. "How do you get into a place like that, just for a look?"

"Either as a patient or a staff member. You can't visit without a pass, and from the conversations I've listened to—heh, accidentally overheard, you get taken straight to the person you're visiting."

Katie stood for a moment before turning to the Doctor. She set a hand on his shoulder with a look of pure patience and charity.

"Uncle, I'm sorry, but your delusions have grown too much for me to handle. I have to take you somewhere they can care for you."

"What?" the Doctor said, more confused that she had changed her voice to have a Californian accent.

"I'm afraid that you'll become a danger to yourself and to the people around you. Don't worry, I'll take care of everything."

"I feel fine."

"You always do when you're inside one of your delusions. Uncle, it isn't real. I've told you this before. You're just a high school science teacher. You don't go whizzing about time and space in a blue box. I'm not your traveling companion, and my name isn't Kathryn Moore. I'm Anna Duncan, your niece. You are Doctor James Alexander Duncan, my uncle on my father's side." She took his arm and started to lead him down the hill back towards town. Tedeschi was nearly in hysterics over the Doctor's expression.

"Kathryn, what are doing?"

Katie stopped, letting go of the Doctor and covering her face with her hand. "Wow. You can be so old sometimes. Don't you see? It's perfect! You can easily convince someone that you are insane. I'll stick you in the local loony bin and visit you. You get to crawl about at night, and I can help you out during the day. And of course, I'll need to tour the place before putting my dear old Uncle in."

"Why do I have to be the insane one? You can do it better."

"Right, and kill the first person who tries to touch me," Katie said cynically. "Anyway, you're more believable. Just be sure to tell everyone you travel in time in a phone box and that you've hung out with Beethoven, George Washington, and Socrates."

"But I have."

"Exactly. Just make sure everyone knows it. Come on, you need to look the part."

"What's wrong with my suit?"

Katie looked over at Tedeschi. "Answer me honestly; does he look like one of your teachers?"

"No."

"I thought not." She turned back towards the Doctor. "I think I know precisely what would work. It would give perfect reason for you to come up with such a hair-brained story as the Doctor."

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

"No. I refuse."

"Oh, come on! It's not that bad. Well, actually it is, but that's the whole point! Only someone so horrifically nerdy and mousey would create a delusion as complex and crazy as the Doctor!"

"This is ridiculous! I want my clothes back."

"No. If you want your normal suits, you're going to have to get them yourself."

"Then where are they?"

"The brown one is with Floyd, who's probably eating it—"

"What!"

"The blue one is with Rhoda, and the purple one is with Manuel."

"Who's Manuel?"

"My free hugs cactus. He's a great conversationalist, speaks about a dozen languages. Has a big thing for hugs though. I wouldn't really mind, except his spines have a nasty habit of paralyzing anyone who touches them."

"Kathryn, your plants are terrifying. Why do you keep them?"

"I like my plants!"

"They're carnivorous!"

"Not all of them. Bartholomew is a strict vegan."

"A vegan plant? How do you get a vegan plant?"

"He's a cannibal."

"You have—? You know what? Never mind. I want my clothes back."

"No."

"I look like a fool."

"No, you look like a cliché teacher. Almost. Where are your—? No. I saw the perfect ones only a minute ago."

Katie scampered off out of the enormous closet. The Doctor turned back to the mirror, grimacing at his new outfit. The suit pants he could deal with, even though they were just plain black. The overly shined oxford shoes…he preferred trainers, but could live with it. What really, truly irritated him, was the top half of the outfit.

Katie had gone diving through the wardrobe and come up with the absolute worst, so definitely not him combination that he found it hard to recognize himself. He was wearing an overly-starched white collared shirt that was buttoned to the neck. Again, he could live with it even though he could hardly breathe. But the plaid sweater vest and checked bow-tie? Really? And the slicked down hair parted to the side? There was no way he could look any worse.

"Ha ha!"

The Doctor turned around only to have Katie put something on his face. She smiled mischievously and clasped her hands together. "Oh, I have got to take a picture of this. Where's a camera when you need one?"

The Doctor turned back to the mirror and his mouth dropped open in near horror. Katie had produced the largest, thickest, coke-bottle glasses he had ever seen in his very, very long life. They made his eyes look twice their normal size, and didn't fit his face in the least.

"I am not wearing these. I can partially handle everything else, but I refuse to wear these."

"Deal. You fit the bill perfectly. Now turn around."

The Doctor turned as he reached up to take off the glasses. There was a bright flash and then a whirr as Katie pulled the picture from the Polaroid camera. She grinned again.

"Oh, this is just too funny. I am so framing this."

"I am not wearing these glasses."

"The glasses fit the image perfectly."

"If I have to wear glasses I'll use my brainy specs."

"No. Absolutely not. You look too sexy in those."

The Doctor blinked, not sure if he was more surprised to hear Katie use the word 'sexy' or that she had applied it to him.

Finding himself with no retort, and rapidly running out of excuses, the Doctor tried one last attempt to avoid being placed in a mental institute.

"How do you plan to explain my physiology?" the Doctor said, knowing he should have used this sooner. Katie shrugged.

"Easy. Our family has a lot of different races in its gene pool, you're a funny mix of all of them. I think there's a few of them out there with a triple-helix DNA structure. I just have to explain that your second heart is from a Siamese twin that didn't make it and we're good."

"Could you at least use your natural voice?" the Doctor said, resigning himself to his fate. "I've gotten so used to your Southern that listening to you use your Californian accent makes me feel as though I've been kidnapped by an evil version of you."

Katie pointed at him, her eyes wide. "Good! Use that. Everyone's been replaced by their dark sides, and that's why we're forcing you to go the Institute."

"That's ridiculous."

"That's the point. Though I think you're right; American accent won't work, not with your voice. I need something else." Katie cleared her throat. "Does this work?"

The Doctor grimaced at her atrocious attempt at a British accent. "No, no, don't."

A knocking filtered through the air, as if by loudspeaker. Katie looked up in response. "That must be Teddy," she said as she started down the stairs. The Doctor followed behind.

"Why is he here?" The Doctor gave her a stern look. "You need to stop bringing people back to TARDIS."

"You wanna name names?" she challenged, raising her eyebrows. "Besides, it wasn't a random choice. He brought me a few things that I'll need to make a good backstory. Haven't you ever done this before?"

The Doctor shrugged. "I always just walked in the front door, made it up as I went along."

"I know, and that's really fun to do, but this time we have to make it airtight just in case," Katie said as she opened the front door. Teddy quickly ducked inside TARDIS, then froze, mouth hanging open.

"Oh wow. Oh, wow!" He spun about and opened the door, going outside again. Katie looked at the Doctor. Mouthing the words, they counted backwards from six. Teddy came in just as they finished. "How does it do that?" he asked, closing the door.

"First rule Teddy," Katie said sternly. "She is not an it."

"That attached to your ship?"

"We are, but she's also alive. Be nice. Now, tell me," she said, going to stand by the Doctor and doing a Vanna White impression. "What do you think?"

Teddy looked at the Doctor critically. For the first time, the Doctor felt empathy for all the people he had given the same look to. It didn't last long.

"He's standing too straight. Much too open for the outfit."

"Ah, but mentally he's the Doctor. You know and I know that he's a high school teacher, but he's completely convinced that he's an alien that runs about time and space saving people. He had an inferiority complex, so he started imagining a whole new life for himself, and now he's convinced he's this wonderful imaginary man he created."

"Would you stop talking about me like I'm not here?"

"Get used to it," Katie told the Doctor bluntly. "All your attending physicians are gonna do the same thing." She turned to Teddy. "What did you bring me?"

Teddy slung his backpack off and unzipped it, proceeding to pull out numerous items. "A holo-magazine on technology, a holo-magazine on fashion, a holo-newspaper, specifically the classifieds and the Stock pages, and then I also brought my Geography stuff so that you could find a place of origin, as well as a list of a bunch of schools scattered about the planet."

Katie accepted all this, flipping through it. "Well done."

"What's all that for?"

Katie grinned cheekily at the Doctor, reveling in the first time she had an edge on him. "Fashion: so that I can be certain I'm not too 'in.' Technology: so that I can find whatever's semi-new in the phones so that I can use it. Classifieds: so that I can find an apartment now and a job in the next few days. Then you are parking TARDIS in an alleyway near that apartment because I refuse to sleep anywhere save my own bed. It gives me a formal address and something to do when it isn't visiting hours."

"You do this background thing awfully well."

"Yep. If you want to take it up with someone, go talk to Harkness." Katie tossed the newspaper back to Teddy. "Find a likely looking spot somewhere in a decent neighborhood. Nothing really fancy, but not the slums."

"Got it."

"Doctor, I want you to start recalling the craziest, nuttiest, stupidest, most ridiculous sounding things you've ever done. Go back to your first regeneration if you have to, but think of the most egotistical sounding stuff in your memory. Nothing beyond this point in linear time unless it's really far out. You have to sound the part for this, so make it big."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "How big?"

"Big," Katie said with emphasis. "Big as in, 'I gave fire to mankind,' big."

"I did actually. Well, it was a companion of mine at the time, but I was still there."

Katie smiled widely. "Just like that."

* * *

><p>The next day, Katie was completely set. The Doctor was dressed up with his new outfit, and Katie had gone through the wardrobe again, consulting the fashion magazine to create an acceptable look, at least for Kurunathan. Her hair was pinned back in a loose but secure style. She wore a clean blue blouse and gray slacks with pumps for shoes. She had even put on makeup, with the necklace as the second negative. Katie made a face at herself in the mirror.<p>

"I can't believe I have to dress like this every day."

"No complaining," the Doctor told her.

"At least you get a hospital gown in the end. I'm going to break an ankle in these things if I have to run."

"It was your idea."

She spun about, nearly falling over. "So it was." She picked up a small purse with a strap for her shoulder. "Let's go get a cab, Uncle."

"It's still odd hearing you say that."

"Weird for me too. Just don't go calling me Anna. Be you and proclaim it. No ones' gonna think you're serious about anything you say."

* * *

><p>An odd taxi ride later (the poor driver had been forced to hear all about the time the Doctor faced down a race of creatures called Usurians who looked like seaweed) Katie and the Doctor—no, Anna Duncan and Doctor James Alexander Duncan arrived at Kurunathan International Mental Health Institute. Anna (twenty six, forced out of college to care for uncle, trying to become Phonetics teacher) was bringing her Uncle James (forty-two, taught science at the Agora High School until his forced retirement) to get help.<p>

Katie was more nervous than she'd ever felt. She hoped it simply showed as strain.

The front gate opened easily enough and Katie and the Doctor were taken inside. Katie quickly spoke to a nurse and they were let into a waiting room, painted a blue so pale it was almost white. After a few minutes went by—during which the Doctor talked quietly to a stressed-looking Katie—a man in a uniform opened a side door and motioned to Katie. She stood instantly, but before she left she turned to the Doctor.

"I'll be right back. You just…wait here."

The Doctor looked at her curiously. "Where are you going?"

"I just need to talk to someone. You wait here."

He looked at her sternly. "I've told you not to wander off Kathryn."

Katie expression grew pained and she started to say something before smiling tightly. "Not wandering off Doctor. I'll be back momentarily."

She turned and followed the man into an office like room and sat down near a desk. The man straightened his tie as he sat down.

"Now Miss Duncan, I understand you're worried about your uncle."

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

Katie nodded. "Yes I am, Doctor.…"

"Randalls," the man said. Katie felt uncomfortable sitting across from him. He had a very oily feeling about him and she couldn't help wondering if he wasn't going to try to make a move on her. His voice broke her thoughts. "Why are you so worried?"

"He's delusional," Katie said, trying to sound desperate. "He's been a high school science teacher for most of his life, and we all knew he had a few problems with self-esteem that he seemed to be over. But about a year and a half ago he started acting…odd. He was conjuring up these grandiose delusions. At first they came in episodes, but now he's completely stuck in them. I've been thinking about bringing him for a long time, but last week he barricaded his classroom because he was certain some race called the Slitheen were going to come crashing through the door to hunt everyone down! I had to leave my day-job early to come coax him out of it. I thought he was going to hurt someone or himself."

Dr. Randalls had been listening to all this with a careful expression. Katie wondered if he practiced in front of the mirror at night.

"Who does he picture himself to be?"

"Some man called 'the Doctor.' He's positive he travels about time and space in a blue box, fighting monsters and saving planets. He's even drug _me_ into his stories, certain I'm a traveling companion of his called Kathryn Moore. He's got an entire back story for me that doesn't even apply to who I really am. He thinks he's over nine hundred years old and that he can do just about anything you ask! What makes it worse is that because he has degrees in the sciences he can come up with incredibly convincing theories of how his stories work. Then again," Katie said, smiling a little, "I've never cared for science, so I wouldn't really know. He sounds fairly certain of it, but he's also certain of his role as 'the Doctor.'"

"Hmm. What else has he made up about this alternate self of his?"

"Things that don't make sense mostly. Some crazed story about how his home world is gone and he's the last one left and he's all alone and other random bits. He's extremely set in his story, and won't accept anything that doesn't agree with it. He's even got this blue and silver pen-light that he waves at nearly everything, saying it's his sonic screwdriver, whatever one of those are. The only way I could convince him to come with me was to tell him that I suspected everyone here was really an invading alien force and he had to investigate." Katie leaned forward slightly. "I honestly don't know what to do with my uncle. I love him desperately; after all, he's my last living relative since my parents died in a crash. But I'm still working on my degrees. I don't have the time to stay with him constantly, and I'm worried he'll hurt himself if left alone."

"I understand, Miss Duncan," Dr. Randalls said. His voice was a very bad attempt at sounding consoling. Katie wondered if it was because he tried too hard or because she had already decided not to like him. "I would need to meet your uncle first of course, but if what you have said is true then your choice to entrust him to us is the right one."

Katie hesitated, feeling a little lost. She had no experience placing someone in a mental hospital, but she had thought it would take a lot more time, more details, more back story, more proof, something. Maybe it always went this way.

Dr. Randalls pressed a button on his desk and a woman in scrubs came in. Dr. Randalls spoke to her.

"I'd like you to assist Miss Duncan in filling out the necessary paperwork to place her uncle under our care."

"Dr. Randalls," Katie quickly interjected. "I'd like to see the place before I turn my uncle over. It's not that I don't think you'll give him the best care, I—"

"Of course. Mrs. Arsol will show you around while I speak with your uncle. Mrs. Arsol, please have someone bring in Dr. Duncan. If he doesn't respond to the name, simply call him Doctor and he should follow."

Katie stood hesitantly. Everything felt very rushed. Dr. Randalls seemed almost eager to see the Doctor, more eager than he should have been. Katie wished she could talk to the Doctor beforehand, but that was obviously out of the question.

Katie followed Mrs. Arsol out a second door, trailing behind as she explained a very, very basic layout of the Institute. Walled in gardens. Treatment rooms. Offices. Patient rooms. Everything seemed to be on the same floor. Katie saw several doors that Mrs. Arsol never mentioned, and she saw one male nurse open one, revealing stairs going down. And there had to be one's going up somewhere; this was only the first floor of what outwardly looked like a two story building. So where was everything?

Of course, Katie's confusion must have shown. She did her best to make it a dazed confusion, where she was just a student of Phonetics and Languages (double major), someone who knew nothing about what was happening here.

_Yeah, like you know anything anyway, fifteen year old…whatever I am._ she thought to herself.

Even the tour seemed absurdly rushed, as though it had been placed on fast forward, and soon Katie was sitting at a desk being guided through the paperwork necessary to place her 'Uncle' in the Institute. She bit her lip when she came to the part of the medical form that asked if there was anything out of the ordinary with her 'Uncle.'

"Something confuse you?" Mrs. Arsol asked. Katie didn't have to fake her discomfort.

"No, I'm just not sure how to explain it. See, my Uncle was born with two hearts. I was never really told how it happened, but I think it had something to do with a Siamese twin that was still-born. I'm not sure. Of course, he'll tell you it's proof that he's an alien."

"Two hearts?" Mrs. Arsol said, raising her eyebrows slightly. "Certainly something we haven't had before. Don't worry, we'll work with it. Maybe as he's treated he'll come to himself enough to tell us himself how it occurred."

"Maybe," Katie said, returning to filling out the form. But even those seemed very rushed, as though it had been trimmed down to the bare minimum amount of information this place had. Maybe they were just that desperate to bring people in. Why would they be, though? If you had people sent to you from all over the planet, then why would you need to process people that fast?

Unable to find a category for medicines that couldn't be administered, Katie wrote it in herself and put 'ASPIRIN' in large letters. Couldn't have him dying because they tried to cure a headache.

"Is it that detrimental to him?" Mrs. Arsol asked, obviously having seen Katie's addition.

"Yes. I nearly killed him once by giving him half a tablet. If he gets a hold of it somehow give him chocolate, the lighter the better. The triglycerides help counter the effects of the salicylic acid. He'll probably go into a really deep coma too. Happened last time." Katie handed the papers back to Mrs. Arsol. "There. Finished. When is the first payment due?"

"After a month," Mrs. Arsol replied. "We can't really decide how much we have to charge before seeing just what we'll need to do."

Again, another oddity. Every other medical facility Katie had ever gone to where a permanent stay was required, they charged something beforehand. This place really, really wanted people.

Mrs. Arsol pulled a small plastic card out of a nearby machine and handed it to Katie. "Use this at the gate whenever you come to see your Uncle."

"Can't I say goodbye?"

"Of course!" Mrs. Arsol said, sounding almost hurt that Katie would suggest that she leave without being allowed to do so.

* * *

><p>Dr. Randalls watched the girl leave. Anna Duncan, as she called herself. What a ridiculous name. Of course, if she was who he suspected, it made sense to hide her name. How much sense depended on how attached she was to—how was he calling himself? Doctor James Alexander Duncan. Of course, Dr. Randall couldn't be sure that it was him, but the note about the two hearts was interesting. It could have been a Siamese twin, of course, but the chances were rare. However, that alone wasn't enough proof. Dr. Randalls would have to wait on the other tests, and then compare them to his files. One couldn't be too careful with a subject like the Doctor.<p>

* * *

><p>After the expected medical examination, and a basic psychological one, the Doctor was allowed to 'wander loose' in a sense, though it was still within the walled outdoor section. He walked around the perimeter, looking for any spot that he might be able to use as a door should the need arise. Nothing. The wall was solid brick and a good ten feet tall, with no trees close enough to jump it. Oh well, it should be alright anyway.<p>

"I'm completely sane!" a male voice cried. "You have no right to keep me here!"

"Yestin, I understand that being kept in one place is difficult—"

The calm voice of the nurse was cut off by the irate man. "Don't you start with that 'Yestin' stuff. If you were any good at what you do, then my wife would have been cured months ago! Instead she's missing and you've got me locked in here!"

"Yestin, you're confused. Your wife isn't alive any longer, she hasn't been for over a year. You went mad with the grief—"

"Oh, I'm mad, but not with grief you stupid needle handler!"

"Anything I can help with?" the Doctor said, wandering over. The nurse and the man looked at him, noticing his lack of nursing uniform.

"Nothing," the nurse said, smiling benevolently. "Just a fellow patient of yours." She obviously saw the available out from the Doctor's present as she gestured to the man.

"This is Yestin, another recent patient."

The Doctor smiled and held out his hand. Yestin took it, mostly out of polite habit. The nurse quietly walked off. Yestin gave an angry sigh before turning back to the Doctor.

"So what have they got you in for?"

"I think Dr. Randalls termed it as 'grandiose delusions brought on by an extreme conscious wish to remove my inferiority complex," the Doctor said. "Not entirely sure if that makes a lot of sense, but he didn't exactly spend a lot of time talking to me before making the decision. He seemed a little more concerned with my physical health."

Yestin sighed. "And that makes ten."

"Ten what?"

"Patients that aren't patients, at least that I know of."

"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked. Randalls glanced to either side, something the Doctor didn't miss.

"There's something weird going on around here. I brought my wife Deborah in almost a year ago for mysophobia. You know, when they can't stop cleaning. I came to visit of course, but she never really got any better. Then she started in with all these stories about stuff they were doing to her. I thought it was just the medication at first, but she kept insisting. I almost started to believe her."

"Why wouldn't she simply create the story to get out?"

"You have to understand, I love my wife, but she's not much of one for creating stories. Her imagination has always been a little…" Yestin's shoulders dropped as he sighed. "And now everyone's saying that I'm the patient and my wife's dead. But she can't be! They can't keep me here without some kind of court order anyway, right?"

"Supposed to, but who's going to listen to a mental paitent?"

Yestin sighed. "Yeah, I was afraid of that. Doesn't matter, Deborah's got to be in here someplace, and I'm not leaving without her."

The Doctor beamed. "Good man! Now, why don't you tell me about these stories of hers."

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

Katie sat cross legged on the hill top, staring at the Institute. It was very late, way past dark, and she should have been back in TARDIS getting ready for tomorrow or something, but she couldn't concentrate. The whole Institute had given her a weird feeling. Not bad necessarily, just…odd. Like there was something there she was being physically pulled towards, but her mind rejected it. Strange but true.

And what of the Doctor? Randalls had been awfully interested in him. Was their ruse already discovered? No, it couldn't be quite so soon, she'd been absolutely, almost painfully, thorough in setting up a fake life for them. They wouldn't know it was the Doctor unless they were looking, and only if they knew what to find. No, Randalls was running something else in there, and he needed people.

But why? Weird mind altering drug testing? No, way too T.V. show. Human testing for a new medical product? Again, too T.V. Organ sales? Look, another example of too much T.V. Human slave trade? Meh, there was a chance but it wasn't likely. Too bookish. What about—"

"What are you waiting for Kat?"

Katie couldn't help but flinch at Teddy's voice. She'd been so absorbed in her thoughts she hadn't even heard him. She turned around and looked up at him sternly.

"Shouldn't you be home in bed Teddy?"

"I could say the same thing to you."

"Actually you can't. I'm older than you and I don't need sleep." Teddy rolled his eyes.

"That's what I always say, but I still have a curfew."

"No, seriously, I don't need sleep." She narrowed her eyes slightly. "If you have a bedtime, what are you doing out here? Must be near midnight." Teddy shrugged.

"I snuck out. I do it a lot. Not like they count to make sure we're all there."

"They?"

"The ladies that run the 'Temporary' Children's Home. I'm in the foster system."

"Ick."

"You can say that again." Teddy sat down next to Katie. Suddenly she didn't feel like sending him back. He wasn't hurting anyone out here, and the company was nice.

"So kid," she said, changing the subject. "Since you're here, why don't you tell me about the stories people are coming back with all the time?"

Teddy seemed to get just a bit excited about this. Katie figured that it was because someone was finally listening.

"I can't get a lot about it, because they only just start on about it before someone takes them away, but they all say that there's something in the basement, some kind of experiment going on."

"Any hint of what the experiment was?"

Teddy shrugged. "Not really. Mostly it was babble about colors and vanishing relatives." Katie looked at him quizzically.

"Vanishing relatives."

"Yeah, that's how most people get in. They visit the family member or something, then one day they don't come out again. One time, a person with one of those white bands on their arms—one of the few legit…lagita—legtia—"

"Legitimate."

"Yeah, that. One of the rare real ones that actually recovered. I heard him talking about how people kept leaving without leaving, and people were put in without actually being put in. He said that there were dozens of sane people in there."

"He was also a recently recovered nut."

"That's why no one would believe him!" Teddy said. Katie shrugged.

"I haven't exactly been to a lot of asylums, but as far as I understand, everyone in them says that they're sane."

"I thought you believed me."

"You gotta take everything with a grain of salt, kid. You can find a lot of bogus stories out there, and with the Doctor's life being the one on the line if something fails, I'm not taking chances."

Teddy studied her for a moment. "Is he your dad or something?"

"No. He's…he's my guardian, I guess," Katie said with a shrug. "Not sure really."

"Does that make him your foster parent?"

"Maybe. I could leave if I wanted to, or he could drop me somewhere."

"Then why is he so important to you? I've had seven families in the past eight years, and I never really cared for any of them. If he's not related to you, who is he?"

Katie smiled enigmatically. "He's the Doctor."

"But who is he? If he's just the person taking care of you, why do you care about him so much?"

"When you look at him, he's a tall, skinny, handsome man with marvelous hair and gorgeous brown eyes. He talks too fast about things that make no sense, and he runs a lot. He shows up out of the air and finds problems to fix. He never really tries to find them; danger and death just seem drawn to him. He's the oldest old man in the universe, but he is the very youngest child the stars could hold. He's the most dangerous, deadly, terrifying person I have ever met, but I would go to hell if he needed me to."

"But why?"

"Because he's the Doctor, and I'm all he's got."

Teddy sat silently for a minute, trying to understand. Katie let him think, returning to the puzzle of what was happening at the Institute.

"Are you a time traveler?"

Katie jerked, surprised by the question. "Where'd you get an idea like that?"

"You don't seem like you fit here, and some of the stuff you said when I followed you guys made it sound like you weren't even from this time. So are you a time traveler?"

Katie leaned back on her arms. "You don't really believe in such things, do you? DeLoreans and alternate timelines and vanishing people that haven't been born yet. All a bit science fiction."

"I didn't say _Back to the Future_ had any truth to it, but with all the other sorts of space travel we've got, there has to be something to it. Besides, if you travel through time, you could be from the future when it is possible. Do you travel through time?"

"You aren't about to let this go, are you?"

"No. And if you avoid it that will give me an answer anyway."

Katie sighed. "You can't go talking about it you know."

Teddy grinned. "I won't. I promise. When have you been?"

Katie couldn't help but smile back at the child. "Oh, I've been everywhere Teddy, or nearly so. Feels like everywhere until I step out of that blue box every morning."

"Do you pop back to visit your family?"

"Nope. Haven't got one."

"Then you're a foster kid too."

Katie nodded. "Yeah, guess I am."

"Then the Doctor is your father."

"Nah. Just a friend, that's all. Very good friend, but he's not my dad. Don't think he'll ever be that."

"Do you think I'll ever travel in time like you do?"

Katie shrugged. "Dunno. What year is it?"

"5103."

"Meh, if you find the right people you might. Time Agency's a little wobbly though. Not as fun with a wrist vortex manipulator."

"A what?"

"Nothing."

A breeze brushed past them and Teddy shivered, reminding Katie of the thermos she brought. Picking it up, she poured out some of the liquid and offered it to him. He took it and drank, promptly spitting it out.

"Gross! What is that stuff?"

"Coffee."

"Never heard of it, but it is disgusting!"

"Be nice, I happen to love it."

"It tastes like burnt dirt."

"Cheeky."

"Poisoner."

Katie laughed at that. "Oh, you sound so British."

"As opposed to..."

"American like me. You know, I'm going to go cliché with this," Katie said, changing the subject, "but what sort of stuff are you planning to do once you get the green light?"

"Green…oh, like the traffic signals in the flat-movies! I don't really know, something science, probably faster forms of space travel. Maybe history things. Geography is kinda confusing, and writing always irritated me. Too many lines involved. With science you can actually do something, whereas everything else seems finished, like there's nowhere else to go with it."

"And history isn't finished?"

"It is, but it was finished when it was new, if that makes any sense."

Katie tilted her head in recognition. "It does a bit. If you're out here all day, and now it seems most of the night, when do you do your work?"

"When I'm out here," Teddy said. "Just because I'm sitting on a hill outside doesn't mean I can't do my homework. I like it better outside anyways. Another reason to like science. It gets you outside half the time. A lot of the other kids say I'm crazy to be out here so much by myself, and my teachers always think I'm doing something evil, but whatever, right?"

Katie could tell that everyone's opinion of Teddy hurt him, but she didn't comment on that. "Yeah, stupid people are annoying. Trust me, I got out as soon as I could."

"Is that when you met the Doctor?"

"Yep. I met him, we took off running, and we never stopped. Don't plan to either."

"What do you do while you're running?"

"Meet people. See planets. Help where we can. Try not to cause too many problems."

"I want to do that someday. It sounds like a lot of fun."

"We like it," Katie said casually, not seeing the glint of awe in Teddy's eyes.

* * *

><p>Down in the asylum, the Doctor stuck his head around a corner. Yestin had given him perfect instructions to the main office, and the Doctor planned to take a peek at the files there. If nothing else, it was a good starting point, though he didn't really expect there to be anything massive. Still, there had to be some record of what was going on.<p>

Walking quickly and quietly, the Doctor was extremely grateful that Katie had shown some kindness in putting one of his pin-stripes in with the bag of clothes she had left. She'd also left only bow ties behind, so he was now without a real tie for his suit and he didn't have his coat. No matter, he'd still figure this out.

Looking either way, he produced his sonic and un-locked the door to Randalls' private office. If there was anything, it would be there.

He slid effortlessly into the large, cushioned chair and quickly used the sonic to start peeling through all the files on the computer, sending a quick thank you to his ancestors for passing on the trait of speed reading. The files flashed before his eyes, the amount of deceased patients' not escaping notice.

Suddenly the Doctor froze. He quickly turned something on his sonic and backed up several files. His eyes widened when he saw the words at the top of the screen.

Using the sonic, he started reading through the sub-folders, his face growing increasingly ashen and his expression more and more somber as he continued.

Finally he finished, sitting back and inhaling deeply, drawing his hand down his face. "So that's what she is then." The Doctor sat for a few moments, thinking. "But why? What does that get them?"

The Doctor got up out of the chair and went to the door, moving as though he felt every one of his nine hundred and three years. He opened the office door to see Randalls and two other men. Before he could speak one of them raised a small gun. The Doctor slapped the side of his neck as a sharp pain hit it. He looked at the small needle he'd pulled from his skin.

"What—?"

Any further words were cut off as he collapsed, feeling the arteries to his brain and lungs suddenly seize up, completely blocked. He could feel his blood platelets lose their ability to clot as his hormone receptors shut down, the salicylic acid doing its deadly work.

Randalls gave a small smile as he looked at the Doctor. "Move him down to the morgue, and be careful," he said sharply to the two men with him. "We have to have him in good condition to show his friend."

"Why sir?"

"Because I need him perfectly recognizable when his current tag-a-long sees him. I want to see if she leaves to try and make a life for herself here."

"What if she continues to poke about? She might try to find out why he died."

Randalls shrugged. "Then we'll see just how she does it and make the call from there."

"…Do you think she's—?"

"It's very possible. We'll see."

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

Katie—Anna—walked into the Institute the next morning, dressed in her college student outfit, a regular purse over her shoulder. The hardest part of getting dressed that morning had been figuring out what she could fit into the purse. She'd be very happy when this was done and she could return to her Gallifreyan bag. It held so much more stuff.

Katie produced her pass at the door. The attendant gave her a kind, almost pitying look and pressed a button. The door ahead of her swung open and Mrs. Arsol came walking up.

"I'm so sorry about this Miss Duncan," she said, her expression a practiced empathy.

"Sorry about what?"

"Your Uncle died last night."

Katie felt her hearts stop, then speed up. "What?"

"He got a hold of the willow bark tea we serve here."

"Willow bark tea?" Katie said, her voice rising. "You knew that salicylic acid would kill him!"

"It wasn't served to him, but he was eating with one of the other patients. I'm so sorry."

"I want to see him."

"Miss Duncan—"

"I want to see his body!"

Mrs. Arsol nodded as though she had expected this, then turned and started walking away. Katie followed directly behind her, her mind in a whirl. The Doctor couldn't be dead…could he? Aspirin could kill him, but she would have thought the Doctor would know better than to drink willow bark. The salicylic acid in it was as bad for him as popping one of the little white pills. Had he been duped into it? Had it really been some kind of accident? Maybe the fumes had been enough. She knew the reaction was violent. But she'd been forced to preview his death, had plans of stopping it! It couldn't happen here. But time could be re-written. But not _his_ death…right?

Katie was led down a flight of stairs to what looked vaguely like a morgue, but she wasn't really paying any attention to her surroundings. Mrs. Arsol walked until she reached one slot in particular and pressed a button on it, making it slide open. Katie couldn't suppress the whimper at the sight of the Doctor's all-too-pale face. She felt two of her hearts stop and the other one slow down to the bare minimum as she turned away, holding her stomach and pressing a hand to the wall of drawers for support.

"I'm so sorry. It happened too fast for us to do anything."

Mrs. Arsol's sickly sweet tone grated on Katie's raw emotions. "Could I—"

"Of course," Mrs. Arsol said, seeming to hear the request. "Just come back out when you're finished. I'll be waiting just outside the door. Take all the time you need." She clicked past Katie, who waited until the door shut before she turned back to the Doctor. She set a hand on his neck, trying desperately to find some kind of a heartbeat.

"Come on you stupid idiot, you can't be dead. I refuse permission for you to be dead. This is a trick, yeah? Some part of a brilliant plot you've got set up, right?" Katie set an ear against his chest, listening and finding nothing. She straightened and stared at him again, finding it hard to breathe as she tried to see if he was.

"Wake up fly-boy! If you've really died on me I am going to be so upset at you. I refuse to let you be dead. You hearing me Doctor? I'm not letting you be dead!" In a flash of anger and pain, Katie hit his chest with joined fists, trying to start his hearts again.

"Get up! You can't be dead! You can't! You can't, you can't!" Katie screeched, hitting his chest again and again. Mrs. Arsol, used to dealing with violent patients, came in and calmly but firmly took hold of Katie and pulled her back. Katie broke Mrs. Arsol's hold on her and briefly covered her face, trying to control herself.

"Is…is there someplace outdoors I could sit?"

"Of course. Just come with me."

Katie followed in a daze as Mrs. Arsol led her in to some kind of walled garden. Katie somehow managed to find a bench to sit on before her legs gave out under her. Mrs. Arsol murmured a final condolence before leaving, giving Katie the space she needed.

He was dead. He was dead, in a morgue, under a mental institute, where she had sent him. Here she had always planned to prevent his death, would do anything to keep him breathing, and she had killed him. Her best friend—no, personal feelings aside, she had killed the Doctor. Forget her, what about the universe? What about time? Time Lords. He was the last. She'd committed genocide!

Katie doubled over, head in hands. Screw the universe, what about her? She had no one left now. She was completely alone. What was she supposed to do? Stay on the planet, going nowhere until the Rahki found her? She couldn't simply get back into TARDIS and fly off, she was just Katie! It would be like murdering someone and stealing the house, the car, and the trailer. And what about the Doctor's body? There must be something specific a person had to do with a dead Time Lord, some kind of burial or ceremony.

She suddenly imagined a book with the title _"101 Things to do with a Dead Time Lord."_ The thought was so inappropriate and so contrary to what she was feeling that Katie started laughing. It was a high pitched, slightly hysterical laugh, and once she started she found she couldn't stop. She slid off of the bench until she was sitting on the ground, her back against a nearby tree, cackling like a witch with tears streaming down her face.

A hand touched her shoulder and she started, her laughs quieting as suddenly as if someone had used a remote to turn down her personal volume. She looked up into the concerned face of a man somewhere in his early thirties.

"Are you alright?"

"No," she said, trying to stop the giggles that were still working their way out. Katie drew in a deep breath, forcing them to stop. "Thank you for asking though."

"What's wrong? You don't really look like a patient."

"I'm not. I was here visiting the—my uncle, but he's dead. I just saw his body." Katie ran a hand through her hair. "What am I supposed to tell TARDIS? She's gonna flip."

"Tardis? That's a funny name."

"It's a ship," Katie said before she could think better of it. The man looked at her oddly.

"What was your uncle's name?"

"Jonathan Duncan. He was a doctor." Katie shook her head. "No, he was the Doctor. He was _the Doctor_, and now he's dead."

The man over her head suddenly became energized. "Then you're the one he talked about, his help from the outside." Katie looked up at the man.

"What?"

"They must have caught him," the man mused, his thoughts drifting. Before Katie realized she was even moving she was on her feet, the man's shirt twisted in her hands.

"What do you mean, 'they caught him?" she demanded. "Was someone here looking for him? Who was it? Where was he going?"

Katie saw the look of confusion and fear in the man's eyes and she forced herself to let go of him, though it was mostly because she knew that if one of the staff saw her attacking anyone, she'd be locked up faster than she could protest.

"Sorry," she apologized, though she found she didn't really mean it. "When did you see him last?"

"Ah, he came up to me yesterday—my name's Yestin Reed since you asked—and told me he was here to find out what was going on. I told him about the patients that were just disappearing, and about how a lot of us are only in here because we got trapped in. I gave him directions to Dr. Randalls' office like he asked for and when I didn't see him this morning I figured he had found something and called for his outside help, you I suppose."

Katie turned away and started pacing, her mind dancing from one thought to the next. "Randalls must have caught him there. But how would they kill him? I thought he could regenerate. Unless it was a straight up death, all hearts stopped. But how do you do that? Force aspirin down his throat? Inject him with salicylic acid? He must have found something in the office. Something really big. But what? Why kill him? You'd think they'd question him, find out who he was working for. Unless…" Katie's voice petered out, her face fixed in a look of disbelief and horror.

"Unless what?" Yestin asked.

"Unless they somehow knew who he was, in which case they would have considered their only option to be killing him. If they left him alive he'd find a way out, or I'd find him. They couldn't risk it. But they must have known what they were looking for." Her expression turned to confusion. "What sort of race knows how to look for the Doctor in such a specific way?"

Katie looked sharply at Yestin. "Is there a back door to this place? Any at all?"

"Yeah, around the East wall."

"Can you be there at say, one o'clock tonight to act as my guide?"

"Why?"

Katie looked at the man steadily. "Why are you here?"

"To find out what they did to my wife."

"Then I need you at that door at one o'clock precisely so that I can help you find out."

Yestin looked at her oddly, then nodded. "You have a deal."

Katie gave him a quick wink before leaving, looking for a nurse. When she found one, she asked to be taken to see the Doctor's body again, promising to not go into hysterics this time. The nurse did so and then left Katie alone as she requested. Katie looked at his body before reaching into his breast pocket and pulling out the sonic and slipping it into her purse. She gave a very weak smile. "Not exactly the way I wanted to get one, you know," she said. Katie set her hands on either side of the Doctor's face, as though she desperately needed his concentration for something.

"I'm sorry Doctor. I know revenge is not something you do, but I am not letting this go unanswered. I'm not going to just let you be dead for nothing. I'm going to finish this. I promise you I'll find out who did this to you, and why, and what they're doing to all those people, and I will stop it. I swear it."

She stared at him for a second. Her voice shook as she spoke. "Now would be a really, really good time for you to tell me you're playacting."

Silence. Cold, heavy, agonizing silence. Katie took her hands away from his face and walked out of the morgue.

As the door closed behind her, Mrs. Arsol stepped out from around a corner and walked over to the slot with the Doctor's body. She studied the face for a moment, marveling at how such a handsome, ordinary looking man could cause so many problems for so many people.

Suddenly the Doctor inhaled deeply, as if he hadn't breathed in a long time. Mrs. Arsol calmly pressed a button next to the slot door and the tray moved back into the wall as his eyes opened. She walked off, ignoring the sound of fists on metal.

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	8. Chapter 8

It was twelve fifty-one at night, and Katie was walking towards the Eastern side of the Kurunathan International Mental Health Institute. After leaving the Institute earlier that day, she had spent the better part of her time alternating between crying, yelling at herself, occasionally breaking something, and sitting in a blank stupor. During one of those moments, she had asked herself exactly why she cared so much. It wasn't as though she really knew this man. She'd known him for a little over ten months, only been physically with him for six of those, but she hurt even more than when she'd been torn from her family.

The thought had passed when she started crying again. Now she had entered into a fogged-over realm of fact. She had a job to do that night. Emotions were just distractions. Katie didn't know if it was right to feel nothing after something like this, but that was what she was feeling now; nothing. It was all straight fact, instinct, knowledge, movement. Personal reasons meant almost nothing. Katie could feel herself shutting down and welcomed it.

She checked her watch. Twelve fifty-three. Seven minutes and then all hell would—no, not break lose, but creep up. She was one person, and she had to do this carefully.

A noise made her turn around suddenly. She gave a peeved sigh when she saw Teddy.

"What are you doing here?" Katie hissed at him, her Texan making the irritation all the more potent. Teddy gave her one of his open looks, his hazel eyes still visible somehow in the dark.

"I'm coming with you."

"No you aren't."

"I want to help!"

"You aren't helping! Go home, Teddy."

"No, I'm coming with you."

"No you aren't!" Katie looked at her watch. Twelve fifty-six. No, twelve fifty-seven. She had to send Teddy away somehow. She was in no mood for compassion or mercy, and people would die tonight. She didn't want an eleven year old boy seeing it.

"You can't go in alone, right?" Teddy said, trying to persuade her. "Come on, I can help."

"Doing what? This isn't the movies. You're still a kid, Teddy, and all you can do is get in the way. You can't help with this, now go home!"

Teddy lifted his chin slightly, not protesting further but also not leaving. Katie glanced at her watch. One o'clock precisely. Pulling the sonic from her coat she pointed it at the door, unlocking it with a click. She pushed the door open and slipped inside, putting the sonic back in her pocket as she did so. A slightly nervous Yestin stood inside.

"What was your wife's name?"

"Deborah."

"Show me to the office, then head back to your bed. I'll find out anything I can on her, but I don't want you getting hurt if something goes wrong."

Yestin looked as though he wanted to say something, then turned and walked quickly down the hall, Katie following behind. She didn't notice the outside door open slightly as Teddy slipped inside and started following them both.

Randalls' office lock was no match for the sonic. Katie tried to get Yestin to leave, but he didn't, insisting that he had to keep nearby in case of an emergency. Katie did her best to ignore him as her fingers flew over the keyboard, her eyes dancing across the screen as files appeared on it rapid fire. Yestin leaned over her shoulder.

"What are you looking for?"

"First your wife, and then what's going on." Katie stopped at a patient file marked Deborah Reed. It showed her as deceased, but both Yestin and Katie had expected that. Katie's hope was that there would be something at the bottom of a page, or a small box that had been checked, or something that didn't fit. Anything that might tell her what to do next.

"What's that supposed to be?" Yestin said, pointing at something. Katie clapped a hand over her mouth as her eyes widened in fear. Yestin didn't notice this as he read aloud.

"Subject used in Scorch Project Stage Three point One: Extraction. End results fatal, body consigned to the morgue, slot 4-B." Yestin swore. "She is dead. They did kill her." He looked at Kathryn. "What are they doing here? What is the Scorch Project?"

"Yestin I want you to get out of here," Katie said, her tone ending any argument. "The door I came in by should still be unlocked. I want you to leave here and go home. Go back to whatever you had, or find a new life on another planet if you want, but leave."

"Why?" Yestin looked at her suspiciously. "You know something about this."

"You could say that, yeah," Katie said, closing the file.

"Then tell me. What did they do to her?"

"Yestin, I want you to leave."

"What is the Scorch Project?"

"You don't need to know. Just get away from here before something happens." Katie set her hand on the door handle, but Yestin clamped a hand on her shoulder and spun her around.

"Tell me!"

Katie locked eyes with him. "It's me. I am the Scorch Project, Yestin Reed, and whatever the hell it is exactly that they're doing here I'm damn well going to stop it. But I want you out of here first. I can't bring your wife back but I can make sure you live."

"I'm not leaving without seeing her first."

Katie was silent for a moment. "Fine."

Katie opened the door only to find the business end of a gun pointed at her face. Looking past the barrel she saw Mrs. Arsol. Teddy was looking up at Katie, seeming almost embarrassed. Katie's glance flicked away from him and back to Mrs. Arsol.

"Step backwards please."

Katie lifted her hands and did as asked, hoping that Yestin wouldn't do anything stupid. Mrs. Arsol followed them into the office, closing the door behind her again. She looked oddly at Katie.

"So you're the finished product."

"Listening in at keyholes?" Katie reproved her. "I'd think someone like you would be above that."

"Depends on the situation. Besides, when every one of us is keeping an eye out for you, you're a little hard to miss. Though, you aren't quite what I expected."

"What did you think I'd be?" Katie asked quietly.

"I'm not sure. A little more impressive."

"You were expecting a light show?"

Mrs. Arsol smiled as though Katie had made a joke. "Not quite yet, but in the end, yes." Mrs. Arsol sighed. "Problem is I'm not really sure what to do with you now. I suppose standard memory removal might work. Of course if we simply finish activating you that'll cover any damage on your end."

Katie looked like she wanted to say something particularly nasty, but changed her mind. "I take it you're a full blooded Rahki, not just a Jahra."

Mrs. Arsol looked insulted. "Of course not! You think we'd entrust testing like this to one of them? Those animals struggling to become truly sentient?"

"They aren't animals," Katie said tightly. Mrs. Arsol smiled condescendingly.

"To be expected when you're technically one of them. Still, you turned out better than we anticipated." She brought her gun arm up from the relaxed position it had gone into.

"Now, this is the unpleasant bit, but blood is easier to erase than minds, and we can't have word of you getting out. So sorry." She pressed the barrel end of the gun against Teddy's head. He inhaled swiftly and Katie started talking, not realizing she was holding her hands in front of her in the same manner the Doctor always did.

"Hang on, just a tiny, tiny moment. Before you go bopping people off and wiping minds and making a mess and everything, I just have one quick question: how's your hearing?"

Mrs. Arsol blinked, confused. "My…hearing?"

"Yeah, just, you know, random curiosity."

Mrs. Arsol still looked perplexed, but answered. "Rahki can usually go to 40,000 Hertz. Why?"

"Cause I need a range."

The sonic that Katie was still holding suddenly lit up. Mrs. Arsol locked up, her face twisted in pain as the sound waves bombarded her ears. Katie moved forward and took hold of the gun, twisting Mrs. Arsol's arm behind her back in the process. Teddy quickly moved out of the way as Katie kept a hand clamped around Mrs. Arsol's mouth. Katie forced Mrs. Arsol to her knees, twisting her so that neither Yestin nor Teddy could see her front. Katie suddenly let go of Mrs. Arsol's arm and wrapped her own arm around Mrs. Arsol's shoulders. She jerked Mrs. Arsol's head to the side, a sharp crack hitting the air. Katie lowered Mrs. Arsol's body to the ground and turned off the sonic.

"You killed her," Yestin said in disbelief. Katie looked at him with empty eyes.

"Trust me. It was a mercy killing," she said shortly, tossing the gun onto the desk.

"A mercy killing?" Yestin said, his eyebrows lifting. "You—you—"

"Have you ever lost blood, Mr. Reed?" Katie asked abruptly. "Not just a scratch, but a lot of blood? When you lose a lot of blood, you end up dying very slowly because you can't keep your organs functioning, so they shut down one by one. That's similar to what she would have been going through if I'd left her lying there. So yes, it was a mercy killing."

Katie turned on her heel and stepped back out the door. Yestin and Teddy had no choice but to follow. Teddy came up behind her, trying to apologize for being there.

"I'm sorry, I didn't—"

Katie hissed shortly at him and he fell silent. Katie ignored him, instead focusing on watching for approaching heat sources in case they were people. Oddly—thankfully—they didn't come across anyone. Katie unlocked the door to the morgue with the sonic. Yestin stepped past her, moving down the wall in search of his wife's body. Katie re-latched the door behind her and promptly dropped to her knee so that she would be on level with Teddy.

"What are you doing here?"

"I want to help!"

"You don't do me any good getting caught by people with guns."

"But you took care of her, didn't you?"

Katie's face grew even harder, her eyes looking like cold stones. "Don't you ever say that again, Tedeschi," she said, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him lightly. "Do you hear me? Life should never be treated carelessly. She wasn't an object, she was a person with a mind and life of her own. I want you to remember that. I _murdered_ someone Tedeschi. This isn't a movie where the person is really okay. She is dead, and she is not coming back. Do you understand?"

Teddy nodded, looking scared by Katie's intensity. Katie sighed, her expression softening slightly. "This isn't a game, Teddy. This is dangerous what I'm doing, and I do not want you hurt."

"Katie, I think you should see this."

Katie looked up at Yestin. He was pointing at the Doctor's box. Katie kept her face still. "What about it?"

"There're dents in it. It looks like someone was trying to beat their way out."

Katie was up on her feet before she knew she had thought about it. She pressed the button to open the slot and gasped when she saw the Doctor.

He was still absurdly pale, but he was no longer laid out perfectly. His suit was rumpled, hair messier than usual. His hands were above his head and looked bruised, as though he had tried for several hours to beat his way out. Katie looked again at the dents in the door to his box. "Strength of a Time Lord," she said. "Scared Time Lord. Box in the dark, and slowly running out of air." Katie covered her mouth with one hand, realizing what she had done.

"Kat? What's wrong?" Teddy asked. Katie swallowed hard before answering.

"The Doctor was allergic to salicylic acid. You'd usually think of aspirin, but all he would need would be the acid. He would have gone into a coma to counter the effects. Oh, I am so stupid! I knew about it and I still left him." Katie pursed her lips together as her hands tightened on the side of the metal tray, denting the metal. She stood that way for a long moment before looking up at Yestin and Teddy. She no longer had any emotion in her face, but that wasn't what scared them. Her normally green eyes were blotted out, replaced by what almost looked to be a swirl of bright, glowing colors.

"Yestin, I want you to take Teddy and get out of here. What's going to happen is something no sane, decent living thing should be caught in. I want you both out of this place _now_." Katie tossed the sonic to him. "Use that on any locks, and then burry it someplace. Or better yet, smash it with a hammer. Now get moving."

"Kat, I want to stay with you."

"Yestin, get him out."

Yestin nodded and propelled Teddy back towards the entrance to the morgue. Katie looked at the Doctor for a second longer before setting his arms at his sides again and sliding him back into the wall. She closed her eyes, feeling the energy pulsing behind her eyelids and through every part of her body. Why it was trying to get out? Was some instinct in her preparing for the havoc she was planning to wreck? Was she trying to protect herself? Was her grief so much that she couldn't spare the effort to control the energy? She didn't know, but right now she didn't care.

Katie cocked her head, listening. No, seeing. No, she was feeling. No, she was sensing.

Ah, there it was. Beneath her feet, under the Institute. A huge glob of it, like a beating heart or pounding drum, straining to reach her.

She opened her eyes and quickly left the morgue. True, Katie still had no idea as to what the "Scorch Project" really was, but if it involved 'Extraction' as Deborah Reed's file had said, then the Rahki running the Institute were trying to find a way to remove and store energy from living things. Eventually, it would be her. Energy attracts energy, and Katie was going to find the energy they had bottled up. She was going to break whatever the seal was.

If she was lucky, it would destroy her along with the rest of the Institute.

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	9. Chapter 9

It was another night with no one snooping around. Just like every other night on guard duty outside the Lab. Geoff Hines yawned, wishing that someone would show up. He wasn't even sure why Dr. Randalls stationed him at that post. It wasn't like anyone came around at night. Geoff wished he was on day shift; then he would have a chance at some kind of excitement when yet another relative came along.

There was a movement in the corner of his eye before someone grabbed his face tightly and started draining something from him. The last thing Geoff Hines ever saw was a pair of glowing eyes full of swirling colors and all-consuming pain.

Katie let the man fall to the ground before she took his hand gun and shot the lock to the door. She dropped the gun onto the floor and pushed the door open. She could hardly see her surroundings, at least in the traditional sense. Everything was showing up in energy; red light, green heat, and blue sound created her world. She wondered if she should question why it was doing that, or if she should really be enjoying the feeling of the life she had just taken running through her. Something in her said she shouldn't, but at a very base, almost genetic level, she found it thrilling, satisfying.

_The Doctor wouldn't have approved,_ a small voice in her head told her.

"The Doctor is dead," Katie said out loud. She walked forward with a purpose, ignoring the few tables with beakers and the other strange machines, making a beeline for a tall cylinder that looked as though it disappeared even further into the ground than she already was. No matter; if given an outlet, it wouldn't matter how far down the storage unit went.

Katie slowed as she reached it, examining it. She could feel it pulling at her like a huge magnet. Oddly enough there was no temporal energy. Didn't matter, what was there would be destructive enough.

The energy inside of the cylinder gathered in the direction she stood, moving to follow her like a compass needle finding North as she walked around it slowly, searching for an opening, any kind of opening. A seam, even, from when they had made it. Any spot that would be weaker than the rest.

_There._ A small plug. It looked like an entrance point. Katie briefly wondered how they worked the extraction process, then threw the thought away. Once she finished with her task, there wouldn't be any reason for the 'Scorch Project' to continue and it wouldn't matter. She put her hand out towards the plug, her mind rapidly calculating how much concentrated energy she would have to apply to break the seal in one quick shot. She paused, momentarily distracted by the way her body was responding to the contents of the unit, the energy inside her starting to roll over her skin and wisp out into the air.

It was a fatal moment. There was a crackle and she felt pain rush through her body, as though she'd been touched with a live wire. Katie instantly collapsed onto the floor in convulsions as whatever it was continued flowing through her.

It finally stopped, but she continued twitching, unable to even think clearly as someone lifted her by the arms and pulled her away from the unit. Her head lolled as she passed out.

* * *

><p>Katie woke slowly. She blinked a few times, trying to clear her now cloudy vision. Gradually she became aware that she was sitting in a long chair that was slightly reclined. She tried to move her arms and legs, but found she was strapped in by her wrists and ankles. They were oddly strong as she jerked against them.<p>

"Glad to see you're awake," a voice she almost recognized said. "Be with you in a moment." Katie sat up slightly and looked over at Randalls. He was staring fixedly into a microscope. Next to him on the table were several extra slides with purple blood smeared on them. Katie let her gaze rest on Randalls.

"Trying to decide what I am?" she asked sarcastically. "Or is this a bi-annual check-up?"

"The second one," he said without looking at her. "You're supposed to have them at least once every two months, but we've lost track of you ever since the Krize forced you off Earth. So inconsiderate of them. Particularly when you weren't even finished yet. Really, I'm surprised that you haven't been caused yourself permanent damage in your current state. Hold off your questions for a moment."

Randalls looked up from the microscope long enough to enter something into an electronic pad nearby. He seemed more comfortable in this environment, as though his role as Director of Kurunathan International Mental Health Institute was a hard one for him. Katie's mind hummed with questions—and threats—for Randalls but she waited, instead letting her mind work through the faint buzzing that had been left by whatever hit her. She was still in the Lab, and could feel where the storage unit was by the tugging on her left side.

Katie's eyes were instantly drawn back to Randalls when he stood up and walked over as he reached into his pocket. Katie instantly reacted, trying to pull away from him. He rolled his eyes. "Please. As if we'd damage you," Randalls said as he produced a stethoscope. "Deep breath," he ordered, setting it against her left side where her third heart was located. Katie looked him in the eyes and held her breath.

Randalls sighed. "I'm trying very hard to be nice and use a good bedside manner, but if you want to be difficult, this will quickly turn nasty. Deep breath."

Katie held out for another moment and took the breath, repeating the action for each of her three hearts. Randalls entered the numbers into his pad. "What did you hit me with?" Katie asked as he had her sit as far forward as possible to listen to her lungs.

"A simple electric pulse. You're so full of energy that it doesn't take much to cause a temporary burn out. A large enough jolt would likely kill you."

"I'll have to remember that."

Randalls gave her an indecipherable look before putting his stethoscope back in his pocket and going to a cabinet. He started going through the drawers as though he couldn't remember where he had put something.

"If I've already been made, why are you still trying to figure out how to use me?"

Randalls looked at her curiously for a moment before he understood. "Oh! You mean the Extraction tests. Just finalizing things really. Our earliest tests were done on a pure energy race called the E'akru. Draining flesh is something else."

Katie stared at him, open mouthed. "You're the freaks who nearly slaughtered those gorgeous trees? How much lower can you get?"

Randalls lifted his eyebrows. "You know about it? That's odd." Katie gave him a disgusted look.

"I happen to have met them, flea-bag, back when I met the Doctor. The Doctor and I saved them from a life of slavery that they were forced into after you finished with them."

Randalls pulled something long and silver out of a drawer. "Hmm. I wondered sometimes. Wish I'd known. They were rather useful."

"Useful?" Katie said, nearly shouting. "You practically wiped them out and you say 'useful?'"

Randalls only looked at her for a moment before lifting up the bottom of her shirt to expose her skin. She looked nervously at the silver instrument as he cleaned a section of her skin with an antiseptic. "I get the feeling that that isn't going to take my temperature."

Randalls didn't answer with words, instead taking the end of the silver reader and sticking it into her stomach. Katie pressed herself back against the chair, trying to control her breathing and not cry out in pain as Randalls continued sliding it through her abdomen.

"I thought—you just said you wouldn't—damage me," she forced out. Randalls didn't pause what he was doing.

"Just need to check your energy levels in the storage organs." He finally stopped, waited a few seconds until the instrument gave a small beep and entered the number into his pad. When he tried pulling it out, he noticed the resistance Katie's body was giving and looked closer at the needle.

"Fascinating. You've already healed around it." Randalls glanced up at Katie. "How old are you?"

"Old enough to know that what you're doing is wrong."

"Hmm. Either it's been a while, or you found a large deposit somewhere. Have you made any stops next to temporal rifts recently?"

"I'd be much obliged if you'd take that needle out of my stomach."

Katie gasped as Randalls quickly pulled out the silver needle. The pain receded rapidly as her body healed.

"He isn't dead, you know," Randalls said.

"What?"

"The Doctor. He isn't dead. If I wanted to kill him, I would do it in a much more dramatic fashion. No, we still need him."

"I don't believe you. I've seen his body. I know he's dead."

"Fine. Did you have any other questions?" he asked as he turned away, setting the needle on the counter. Katie thought for a moment, trying to choose the best one.

"What do you mean I'm not finished?"

"Just that," Randalls said, moving his rolling chair over to another table, his back turned to Katie. Obviously he didn't consider her a threat.

"I feel perfectly whole, thank-you."

"That's because you're still running on your old programing. We didn't have a chance to activate the second layer. The Krize saw to that after they bungled their acquisition of your Reader. Sending in mercenaries of all things! Grixzens too. You'd think a race that prides themselves on non-interference would see the damage a mercenary band does."

Katie glanced at her wrist straps. She made her hand as small as possible and started wiggling it, trying to work her hand out.

"What is my programming?"

"Depends on which layer you're considering, but in general it's to find the Doctor and travel with him."

Katie was puzzled by that. "So why not just dress up an ordinary Jahra Rahki and ship 'em out with a tracking device?"

Randalls snorted in derision, continuing to work on something. "One of those? Glorified recorders, that's all. Much too basic. No, we needed someone who believed their own cover story until we were good and ready for them to know otherwise. There are a few other functions you'll eventually serve, but those aren't really important at this point in the Project."

Katie had gotten her hand to move a little in the restraint, and hoped Randalls wouldn't turn just yet. "Why did I need to find the Doctor? What did he have to do with this?"

"Past tense, Scorch?"

"You know he's dead, you—" here Katie used a word that couldn't, and shouldn't, be translated. Randalls winced.

"Whatever you've been learning from him you've obviously picked up a few habits from Earth, starting with language patterns. Good. He's got such an obsession with that planet, though we still can't figure out why. Such basic creatures, the human race."

"They're amazing, slime ball, and if you'd pull yourself out of the microscope and truly meet them instead of hiding behind Jahra, you'd know that."

"We tried, Scorch," Randalls said, his voice carrying a tightness that sounded as though it came from a deep, likely generational, grudge. "We tried to travel time but your precious Doctor stopped us. We worked for so long to gain the technology and he—" Randalls cut himself off. "It was all a long time ago, but we're nearly done anyway. Soon we'll get our own back. Do you still have your Reader?" he asked, turning around. Katie instantly stopped moving her hand.

"My what?"

"It looks like a rock."

"Oh, that thing! Not on me at the moment, but I've still got it. Technically."

Randalls' forehead wrinkled. "That's rather troubling. You're not supposed to be able to let it off your person. Still, it is damaged, so that likely accounts for it…"

"What's it supposed to do anyhow?"

"It was designed to read your age and energy levels from a distance, sending us signals until we were ready for you, at which point the transporter function would kick in and bring you straight to us. After your Last Cycle, it would have sent out a signal bringing the Doctor to you. Unfortunately the Krize—idiots—sent the Grixzen after it, and your newly awakening DNA from the poison confused it, sending you to the Doctor instead."

"Okay, making sense so far. Next question: why are you telling me all this?"

Randalls smiled as though what she said was funny. "I didn't keep you down here for a friendly chat, Scorch. You're here now, and I plan to make use of the situation. I'm going to finish activating you."

"Something tells me I'm not going to like it."

"The current you won't. To put it in terms you'll easily grasp, your mind and body will still be under your control, but your soul will be ours. That way, when you're ready for the Final Stage—which will be very soon—you won't be able to resist."

"Why would that matter? What is the Final Stage?"

"The end of the known universe."

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	10. Chapter 10

The door to the morgue opened slowly as Teddy's head appeared around it. He smiled upon seeing that no one was there. He looked at the sonic in his hand, grateful that pickpocketing was one of his favorite hobbies. Yestin hadn't even noticed him leaving, much less taking the funny pen thing.

Teddy wasn't so sure the Doctor was dead. Katie had talked about him as though he were invincible, so he couldn't really be gone. After all, the good guys never die, right?

Finding the dented door didn't take too long. He zapped it with the pen, liking the whirring noise it made. The door swung open and the tray slid out automatically. Teddy stood on his toes, looking at the Doctor's face. He didn't know what he was supposed to do now.

The Doctor took a great, heaving breath, nearly choking on the air. Teddy grinned. "I knew it! I knew you were still alive!"

The Doctor pushed himself up on his elbows, looking quizzically at the boy. "What are you doing here?" He looked around. "Am I in the morgue?"

"Yep. The staff musta poisoned you or something. Kat said something about…sala-cycle acid and she thinks you're dead, but I knew better."

The Doctor seemed to get a shot of adrenaline because he quickly got off the sliding tray. It was more of a roll, and he couldn't really stand straight, but his eyes and mind were certainly not asleep.

"Where is she?"

"I dunno. She told me and some guy named Yestin to get out, because she was going to do something really horrid." Teddy looked questioningly at the Doctor. "Doctor, Kat was acting really weird when you were dead."

"Weird how?"

"Her eyes were all different colors, and she looked really angry."

The Doctor seemed worried for a moment, then noticed the sonic in Teddy's hand. "Why do you have that?"  
>"Kat gave it to Yestin to get out, and I took it from him."<p>

The Doctor took the sonic back from Teddy, and seemed about to say something when Teddy asked another question. "Doctor, what's the Scorch Project?"

"How do you know about that?"

"Kat said she had something to do with it."

The Doctor stared at the back wall of the morgue. "They found her."

"Who found her?"

The Doctor suddenly bent to be on eye level with Teddy, grabbing his shoulders. "Tedeschi, I want you to leave. I want you to get out of here and don't try coming back."

"What about Kat?"

"I'm going to save her, I promise, but this is…" the Doctor's voice trailed off, not sure how to explain.

"It's big?" Teddy offered.

"Yes."

"Is this the part where the hero saves the girl and beats the bad guys against all odds?" The Doctor couldn't help but smile.

"Yes. This is that part. Now go."

* * *

><p>The Doctor used the sonic to follow the energy spike that was Katie, growing increasingly disturbed by the amount of bodies along the way. He'd counted four so far, and had no doubts there would be more.<p>

He found the sixth one in front of a door down in the basement. The lock had been shot off the door, another sign that Katie was inside. He hoped she didn't still have the gun, but doubted it. Why carry weapons when you are one?

The Doctor opened the door to the room, revealing some kind of scientific laboratory. It was mostly machines that reminded him vaguely of cyber converters, but he didn't really care about that at the moment. What drew his attention was the unconscious Katie in the chair, and Randalls over behind a table working on something. He looked up, seeming a little peeved.

"I had hoped you'd stay in the morgue for a few more hours. Oh well, we must work with these things as they come up." He bent back down. "You may as well take her. There were one or two more things I wanted to do, but the most important part is over."

The Doctor was slightly taken aback. He had expected a confrontation. He always had one. No one ever just returned his friends. Usually they fought and he was forced to destroy them to save a planet or something.

Randalls looked back up at him and nodded towards Katie. "Go on. I'm not going to stop you. It would be useless to try. I have to thank you for bringing her though. I'm glad I had a chance to look her over. It is good to see my creation working so well."

"_You_ made her?" the Doctor asked. Randalls smiled, looking almost like a proud parent.

"I certainly did. There were others helping of course, but I was the lead designer. Took nearly twenty years, but we finished her." Randalls pointed sternly at the Doctor with the instrument in his hand. "Take care of her. She was expensive, and I can't have her getting damaged yet."

The Doctor walked cautiously over to the table and pulled over a nearby stool, perching on it and facing Randalls. "Why? What is she for?"

"Come now, you went through all those files on her," Randalls said, spinning away on his chair to the table behind him to put something into an electronic pad. "Venture a guess."

"I know what she does; should have seen it earlier really. What I want to know is why. There was nothing on the end result. Why go through all that trouble to make her?"

"That piece of information is the most safeguarded secret known to the Rahki, and only a handful of us really know." Randalls locked eyes with the Doctor. "In other words, I wasn't told what she's for. Only what she had to do." He turned away from the Doctor again.

"Once I leave, what will you do?"

"We're finished with our tests here, so I'll be leaving. Frankly, I'll be glad to get home."

The Doctor stared at him for a moment. If he was honest with himself, he didn't know what to do. Everywhere he went, the people he was fighting protested until the end, struggling so hard that they died. No one ever just gave up, and no one turned their back on him. It wasn't a matter of pride; he was just too dangerous to look away from. So…now what?

"I'd be much obliged if you'd leave, Doctor," Randalls said, his voice taking on a tight sound.

"That eager to be rid of me?"

"In truth, yes. None of the Rahki much like you Doctor, and on a personal level you make me…uneasy."

"What are you going to do with the energy you've been storing here?"

"I'll take it with me when I leave. Having gone through the trouble to harvest it, it would be a shame to let it go to waste. It'll be put to good use."

"What is 'good use'?"

"I'd tell you, but that would require knowing the end result." Randalls gestured at Katie. "Take her! I can't finish what I was planning with you here, so you might as well have her."

The Doctor got up off his stool and went over to Katie, releasing her from the chair. She still hadn't moved.

"How did you manage to put her out?" the Doctor asked.

"Small electric shock. It overloads her cells. A short circuit, if you want to put it that way. She'll be alright soon."

The Doctor absorbed this information and picked Katie up bridal style. She was much lighter than he had thought she would be.

"Doctor," Randalls said suddenly. The Doctor turned back to face him.

"A piece of sporting advice; her temporal side is almost done charging. We'll be running into each other again very soon, and when that happens things aren't going to be nearly as pleasant. Enjoy the time you have left together."

* * *

><p>Teddy waited just up the hill, watching the front door of the Institute, waiting for something spectacular to occur. Maybe the entire building would burst into flames, or maybe collapse in on itself, or maybe it would simply explode. It would be so cool, whatever it was.<p>

He was puzzled when the Doctor came out the front door, pushing Katie in a hoverchair. He was walking, as though nothing had really happened, just another person taking a relative out. He took a turn and headed up the hill, though Teddy didn't think it was because he had seen him. After all, it was still pretty dark, and Teddy had night vision goggles to help him see.

Katie started to move in the chair, as if she was waking up. The Doctor flipped some sort of lever on the hoverchair and it set itself down as he moved in front of the chair to face Katie. Teddy just knew that whatever it was they were going to talk about would be important, so he dug through his backpack and pulled out his long range listening device. He had had to save up for six months to buy it, but it was worth every credit. Teddy quickly put it in his ear and turned the dish towards Katie and the Doctor, watching them through the goggles.

* * *

><p>Katie woke up slowly, her head foggy. It took longer to recover from the electric shock than before, and she wondered why.<p>

"Kathryn? Can you hear me?"

She immediately recognized the Doctor's voice, and her head cleared instantly. Before she knew she had done it, she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"You're alive! Oh hallelujah, you're alive!"

The Doctor embraced her as well, not saying anything. He could only think of the files he'd seen, wondering if he should tell her. She pulled back and put her hands on either side of his face, her eyes demanding his attention.

"Don't you ever, ever, ever do that to me again. Do you hear me? Don't you ever die on me again."

He smiled. "No promises."

"NO. Don't you ever say that. Don't even joke." She hugged him again, and he could hear the tears in her voice as she spoke. "Don't. Just don't. I can't lose you like that again."

"Oh, come on, I'm not that easy to kill."

"Stop it," Katie commanded. "Just stop. It isn't funny." She let go of him suddenly. "Where's Randalls?"

"Down in the basement Lab."

"Did he hurt you?"

"That's usually my question."

"Well now I'm the one asking. Did he hurt you?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No. I came in as he was working on something and he told me to take you."

"And what did you do to him?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" Katie asked incredulously.

"Kathryn, he wasn't a danger."

"What the hell do you mean, not a danger?" she shouted, her demeanor shifting. "He's been killing hundreds of people down there! You can't just let him continue!"

"He's finished Kathryn."

"So he is dead."

"No! But he's done with his work. He'll be gone in the morning. So will most of the staff. They're finished."

"You can't just let him go!" Katie protested. "Tell me you at least found a way to get rid of the energy he's stored up."

"No."

"What! Doctor, that's the life blood of hundreds of victims, and you're letting him keep it?"

"If I'd gotten rid of it, they would only have gone somewhere else."

"Do you have any idea what he's going to do with it?"

"No," the Doctor lied, "but it isn't worth hundreds of more lives to collect it again!"

"They're the ones who slaughtered the E'akru! There's thousands dead right there, plus all the pain they went through at the hospital! You heard the song then Doctor, don't you dare deny it. He's at fault for it!"

"Not by the laws of his people."

"Since when have you cared about planetary law? You always said that you were the law!"

"And…what?" the Doctor asked. "I should start executing people because I don't like what they've done?"

"Haven't you always done that?"

The Doctor couldn't have looked worse than if Katie had punched him. She looked away, trying to calm down, obviously regretting her words but too proud to apologize.

"Doctor, he's the lead designer on the Scorch Project," Katie said, trying to convince him. "Whatever he's got that stuff for, it's not good. We just—"

"What are you looking for, Kathryn?" the Doctor said, his voice caring a deadly note. "Revenge? Satisfaction?"

"I thought they'd killed you!"

"How many Kathryn?" the Doctor demanded. "How many more will satisfy you? I counted six bodies on the way to retrieve you, obviously not dead by normal means."

"There was—"

"_Six_ Kathryn. Six more to add to the hundreds this place has already claimed. How many more will it take to satisfy your bloodlust? How many deaths will it take? Randalls? The staff? The entire race?"

Katie stared at him, unable to look away but obviously scared. For once, the Doctor was glad to have someone scared of him. She had to stop, and maybe now it would stick.

He did a half turn, as if preparing to walk away. "I don't care how loudly you protest. You are as human as they come, Kavrin," he said, biting out her old nickname.

* * *

><p>Teddy set down the goggles as the Doctor walked off, leaving Katie standing alone. Now he was confused. He thought that Katie and the Doctor were the good guys. Could he have been that wrong?<p>

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	11. Chapter 11

Teddy tapped on the door of TARDIS the next morning. The Doctor opened the door, looking around before spotting Teddy. The Doctor looked at him questioningly.

"Tedeschi? Something wrong?"

"Yeah. Kat's still on the hill."

The Doctor didn't answer.

"You aren't gonna leave her there, are you?"

The Doctor stayed silent.

"She's not that scary," Teddy said.

"She has her days."

"But you can't just leave her. She loves you."

The Doctor gave Teddy the oddest look. "What made you say that?"

"All the things she told me about you. The way she acted when she thought you were dead. She was so angry. I think she wanted to die too."

The Doctor smiled ruefully. "I think she always wants that, to a point."

Teddy seemed as though he was going to ask more about it, but stopped himself. "So you aren't gonna leave her?"

The Doctor looked at him and grinned. "Thanks for the help you've been Tedeschi. I wish you a brilliant life." He started to shut the door, not really answering Teddy's question, but the boy put his foot in the door.

"You can't just leave like that! She went in to the Institute because she thought you had died! She doesn't deserve to be left like that."

"I won't force anyone to travel with me."

"She wants to though."

"Sometimes people lose the right."

"How did she lose it? What did she do wrong?"

"Life isn't a movie, Tedeschi."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just that."

* * *

><p>Katie sat on the hillside, staring down at the Institute. It was nearly nightfall again, the day after her argument with the Doctor nearly over. She hadn't gone back to TARDIS, and she hadn't called him. She half wondered if he hadn't simply left her. He'd certainly sounded like he would. Why else would he have called her Kavrin? And if anything that Randalls had said was true, it was probably safer for him, and better for the universe.<p>

So why did it hurt so much?

She fiddled with the crystal necklace as her thoughts wandered. Had they really only come to Kurunathan four days ago? It felt so much longer. A lot of emotional ups and downs that day. Her—Gina's dad's birthday, and then the Doctor had taken her for a fun day; no running, no monsters, no death, just two friends hanging out. She'd bought cloth to make him ties. She'd even bought a dress, feeling very much like a woman that day, allowing herself to be female, to risk the damsel in distress look. He'd gotten her the necklace, just because it went with the dress. Just because she'd been happy. Really happy.

So what the hell had happened? And what was she supposed to do now?

If he _had_ left, she'd have to make a life for herself. Maybe she'd go looking for the Time Agency. Katie was fairly certain that they were still in business. All she needed was a vortex manipulator. She could use it to go back to TORCHWOOD. A life trapped in the basement, constantly on the verge of going insane wasn't appealing, but it was better than being left in a place she knew nothing of. Or maybe this was an adventure setting itself up for her. She could certainly try to make a normal life for herself. Get a job to go with the apartment, get some friends, have a life.

And then leave when the fact she didn't age started to show, or when she accidentally killed someone after a handshake. No, even if she had to build a vortex manipulator, TORCHWOOD was her only hope. She couldn't risk living anywhere or anywhen other than 21st century Cardiff. At least she'd still taste the stars to some extent, even if it was in leftovers.

Katie took a deep breath as she stood, mulling over her choice. Exile or the universe? An existence or life? Earth or the stars?

Herself or the Doctor?

"No choice there," she said out loud to no one. "I've done worse for him. I can do this."

Her phone buzzed in her hand and she looked at it. The caller I.D. read _Doctor_. She looked at it, so tempted to open it and answer, so ready to apologize, to beg, to do whatever it took to fly with him. More than anything she wanted to go back.

"Answer it."

Katie looked over at Teddy. She smiled. "The excitement's over kid. Time for you to go home."

"Don't have one. Answer him. He's trying to bring you back, I know he is."

"Yeah, so do I. The guilt's getting to him, as always." Her smile saddened. "Go home Teddy. You've been brilliant, really you have. You've got so much waiting for you, Teddy. Go live it."

The buzzing stopped. Teddy's gaze fixed on her phone before looking back to her. "Call him back. He'll forgive you, I know it."

"He forgives everyone. Thing is, the stuff he said was true."

"Can't you say goodbye?"  
>"If I speak to him, I'll go back, and it's dangerous for him if I do. Whatever I am, it's not safe for him. I can't…I can't do that."<p>

Katie dropped the phone on the ground, crushing it under her boot heal. She looked over at Teddy and swallowed her tears. "Go home kid. You're amazing, incredibly brave, and so smart. Go live your life, and treat this as a dream. I never existed, and neither did the Doctor. We were another movie that you saw."

Teddy looked like he might cry. "I don't want you to go. I want to travel through time with you and the Doctor."

"No you don't. You want to wake up. You want to forget this."

"No I don't! Don't tell me what I want!"

Katie stepped forward in a threatening manner. "Get out of here kid!" she snarled. "I was trying to be nice, but if you want to start whining, then I'll be blunt. Get away from me Tedeschi. You're a liability, an eleven year old who doesn't understand life. Go back to your perfect fantasy world where everything is over and fixed in neat little two hour packages. Go back to the foster home and stay there."

Rather than run, Teddy stayed still, though he had started sniffling. "You don't mean any of that. You sound just like him. I won't forget, I won't. I'll live a brilliant life in despite of it all. I'll pick a name for myself and make it big."

Katie couldn't help but smile. "I don't deserve to know you kid." She jerked her chin. "Now go on. Back to the real world."

"You have to go back to town and get him."

"No. No goodbyes for me."

"Why?" Teddy demanded.

"Because life isn't a movie."

* * *

><p>The Doctor set the phone back on the hook, deliberating. He'd seen the files, and though the why was still an incredible mystery the what was plain. Everything added up, screaming what she was built for. Everything was at risk if she traveled with him any longer. If she even stepped into TARDIS he'd be forcing her fate on her, and that wasn't something he could—or should—do. He didn't have the right.<p>

The muscles in his jaw worked as he stared at the view screen. He could follow her. Phone signals weren't that hard to track. Neither were energy blots. He could show up right now and bring her back to TARDIS. He knew that if he went after her she wouldn't be able to refuse.

And then what? The argument was nothing; they'd forget it as soon as they landed in the next place. Forgive and forget. But the Rahki weren't just after her, they wanted him as well, and they might leave her alone if he wasn't there. He still didn't know why they hadn't taken the both of them while they were in the Institute, but there had to be a reason the Rahki were waiting. Something about Katie being fully charged with temporal energy?

Maybe he should just leave. Lots of people in the universe, lots of places to go. He'd lost people before, good people. And Katie could take care of herself. She was Katie.

So why did it hurt so much?

Loneliness or the best friend he would ever have? Another hole in his hearts or a dead person?

Himself or Kathryn?

"No choice there," he said out loud to no one.

Suddenly his phone rang. He picked it up, wishing with both of his hearts that it was Katie.

"Hello?...Oh. It's you…No, no, I'll come in…what?...They can't have that's—that's an impossibility!...I wrote the security program myself, no one could get through…How much?...Is that a lot of money?...It is. Alright, where are you again?...Never mind, just give me the name of the planet and the date, I'll look it up…"

The Doctor scribbled something onto a note pad. "Right. Yes, I'll be there soon as I can…How should I know? Just keep the place on lockdown or something until I get there…Oh, and I've got a new face so…I don't know, it's sort of thin? Brown hair and eyes, six foot one…No need to get snippy, just look for the blue box."

He hung up the phone. "Blimey. You'd think casino owners would be a little less pushy."

The Doctor glanced one last time at the door before throwing the lever.

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p>

I'll be honest; I'm laughing evilly at my readers right now. Mostly because I know what's coming and you don't.

My next story is titled "When the Sky Falls In." I promise that if you read it, you will be recompensed.

Thanks to all of you who have stuck with me and are still reading these.


End file.
